Mathilde Block

Mathilde Block (left), 1920s

Crucifixion group, donated in 1888 by Johanna Dorothea Elisabeth Hoeltich to the St. Nicolai Church , Mölln

Portrait of Pastor Adolf Moraht , 1886, St. Nicolai Church, Mölln

Lady in Rococo costume at a small secretary, looking at a miniature

Bethlehemite

Chest portrait of a little girl

Youth portrait of Count Albrecht von Hardenberg , 1921

Portrait of the provost Johannes Rußwurm , 1892, Ratzeburg Cathedral

Triptych (Emmaus disciples, risen Christ, women at the grave, from 1898), St. Abundus Church , Lassahn

The Last Supper , 1906. Donated by Mathilde Block as an altarpiece for the St. Anna Church in Niendorf ad St. (removed from the church in 1964)

Portrait of the landscape councilor Oskar Ferdinand von Walcke-Schuldt on Goldensee, 1887, Duchy of Lauenburg District Museum , Ratzburg

Auguste Betty Julie Mathilde Block , in some pictures also Mathilde Block-Niendorff (born July 10, 1850 in Niendorf ad St. , † June 21, 1932 in Pinneberg ), was a German painter and embroiderer .

Life

Mathilde Block was the daughter of the pastor of the Niendorfer St. Anna Church Julius Friedrich Block (* May 7, 1806 in Hittbergen ; † May 4, 1854 in Niendorf ad St.) and his wife Auguste Henriette Wilhelmine Block, née Rosa (* August 19, 1819 in Braunschweig ; † September 10, 1908 in Pinneberg). When Mathilde was three years old, her father died. A small parsonage widow's house was built for the mother, Mathilde and her two siblings, into which they moved when it was finished. The talent for drawing, which she must have inherited from her mother, was already evident in childhood, because she painted and drew a lot. The oldest documented evidence of her early drawing skills are five portraits of Niendorf farmers, which she is said to have drawn at the age of twelve. Mathilde was tutored by her mother, supported by her father's successor, Pastor Fiedler. After confirmation, she was given to Ratzeburg for a year and a half , where she attended the first class of Johanna Kuss' secondary school. Back in Niendorf, at the age of sixteen she started her first job as a teacher for two and a half years. In order to be able to support her mother, who lived only on a small pension and some manual labor, she looked for a better-paid position as a tutor in Stargard at Stargard Castle . She stayed there for four and a half years. Finally back with her mother, she first looked for relaxation. During the following year and a half she was able to fulfill her long-awaited wish to devote herself to training in drawing. She received a scholarship .

In October 1875 she moved to Berlin . She received a two-year freelance position from Crown Princess Victoria in the Viktoria-Pensionat or Viktoria-Stift from the Lette-Verein and attended the association's arts and crafts drawing school. At the same time, until July 1, 1877, she also took courses in the drawing school of the Association of Artists and Art Friends in Berlin . One of their lecturers there was Professor Adolf Eybel . In recognition of her efforts and the successes she had already achieved, she received a silver medal from the Lette Association in January 1877. In September 1877 she applied to the Royal Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin for an appointment in October for the exam to become a drawing teacher. She passed the exam with very good grades. She worked as a drawing teacher in Berlin, but also took private lessons from Gustav Graef , in whose studio in Palais Raczyński she had begun oil painting . On March 4, 1878, Mathilde received another scholarship for two years from the Landscape Collegium of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg, retrospectively until the beginning of the year , for which she had previously applied in writing. Other painters with whom Mathilde Block took private lessons in Berlin over the years included Carl Gussow , Franz Skarbina and Friedrich Geselschap . In 1892 she joined the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin, to which she remained loyal until 1927. She won three prizes in the club's competitions.

Her deep religiosity is probably due to the fact that she accepted many commissions from churches. The largest altarpiece she ever created was the 3.14 meter high and 1.66 meter wide painted crucifixion group for the high altar , which was donated by Johanna Dorothea Elisabeth Hoeltich for the St. Nicolai Church in Mölln in 1888 , with a damaged carved crucifix (Torso now in the sacristy), but was moved to the rear of the altar in 1967 because the painting epitaph , donated by Joachim Werner Höltich in 1669 and hanging on the north wall, was placed in the altar. In 1998 or 1999 both pictures were cleaned by a restorer. The style of Mathilde Block's painting is reminiscent of the work of the Pre-Raphaelites , who influenced Mathilde Block alongside the Nazarenes .

The important order from Mölln had probably enabled her financially to undertake a study trip to Italy . It was a long journey. She has also been to Munich often and studied privately with Paul Nauen, among others, and either with Wilhelm Dürr the elder or his son Wilhelm Dürr the younger .

She was often in Pinneberg, with her sister Therese and her mother, sometimes for months, even after her mother's death. This ultimately resulted in the orders to paint a total of four paintings by Pinnerberg Mayor. Three of them hang in the council chamber. The last visit lasted over half a year until she died on June 21, 1932 in Pinneberg. She was transferred to Niendorf as she had wished beforehand and was buried in her old home, in the cemetery next to the church where her father was pastor.

In 1933, a year after Mathilde's death, Therese organized a small exhibition in Pinneberg in which watercolors by Mathilde were shown. The Pinneberger Tageblatt paid tribute to the exhibition in an article.

Block-Niendorff - Block-Nordhausen

In order to avoid confusion with a painter of the same name who mainly painted flowers and was also with the Association of Artists and Art Friends in Berlin, she temporarily signed her pictures with Mathilde Block-Niendorff , based on her place of birth, while the flower painter in Exhibition catalogs sometimes appeared as Mathilde Block- Nordhausen . In addition to participating in exhibitions in Berlin, Block-Nordhausen from Thuringia also often exhibited in Jena and at least once in Weimar . Block-Nordhausen was a student at the drawing and painting school of the Association of Artists and Art Friends in Berlin in 1878 and was a member of the association from 1901 to 1911. She participated in exhibitions of the association in 1898 and 1901.

family

The parents of Mathilde's father Julius Friedrich were Betty Luise Lisette Block (* 1800 in Schleswig ), née Mutzenbecher , and Friedrich Christian Block (* 1762; † 1834) from Ratzeburg, who was pastor in Krummesse from 1792 , 1806 consistorial assessor, 1817 to 1834 Superintendent of the Lutheran Church of the Duchy of Lauenburg , and in 1817 knight of the Order of the Dannebrog and 1828 Dannebrogsmann . He was a co-founder of the Lauenburg-Ratzeburg Bible Society . Mathilde's siblings were the one year younger businessman August Carl Friedrich Ludwig Nicolaus Wilhelm Block (born August 29, 1851 in Niendorf ad St.) and the two years younger sister Therese Luise Charlotte Block (born May 24, 1853 in Niendorf ad St .; † March 23, 1940 in Pinneberg), who married her cousin, the lawyer Herman Block (born April 25, 1840 in Schwarzenbek ; † November 27, 1905 in Pinneberg), and moved to Pinneberg with him and her mother Auguste in 1893.

Awards and prizes

Silver medal from the Lette-Verein in recognition of the efforts and the successes already achieved in drawing, Berlin, January 7, 1877
Three first prizes in competitions of the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin for a portrait in oil, watercolors and the chalk draft of an altarpiece, which earned her a price of 500 marks . In 1888 she was able to realize the altarpiece in Mölln as an oil painting over three meters high thanks to the financing of the picture by Dorothea Hoeltich from Mölln for the St. Nicolai Church .

Exhibitions (selection)

1887 or 1888: Exhibition in Mölln where your award-winning chalk design of the altarpiece was shown
1888: 60th exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in the State Exhibition Building in Berlin - oil painting, portrait of Mr. W. Hellmich , girl's head
1889: 61st exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, Unter den Linden 38 - watercolors or drawings, on the journey (watercolor), invalid , girl's head
1891: International exhibition organized by the Association of Berlin Artists on the occasion of its 50th anniversary - watercolor on the journey
1891: Fifth exhibition of the Poznan Art Association - watercolor from the past
1892: 13th art exhibition of the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin - watercolor two children's heads
1892: 63rd exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin in the state exhibition building at Lehrter Bahnhof - watercolor relaxation hours , oil painting portrait of the cathedral provost Johannes Rußwurm
1893: World's Columbian Exposition (world exhibition in Chicago ) - Together with other members of the Association of Artists and Art Friends in Berlin in the German section of the women's pavilion - watercolor from a by-gone time ( From a By-gone Time )

1893: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolors or skat drawings on the booth (watercolor), portrait of Mrs. EW

1894: 14th art exhibition of the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin - paintings, double portrait of a boy and girl, double portrait of two boys (watercolor)

1895: Great Berlin art exhibition - painting, portrait of Dr. E.

1895: German-Nordic trade and industry exhibition in Lübeck - A tapestry ( tapestry with artistic embroidery )

1897: Great Berlin art exhibition - painting, portrait of Mr. Hans Beringer , Bethlehemitin (watercolor)

1898: 16th art exhibition of the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin in the building of the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin, Unter den Linden 38 - watercolor Skat in the booth

1899: Great Berlin Art Exhibition - Watercolor In Thought

1901: 17th art exhibition of the Association of Artists and Art Friends in Berlin - watercolor deepened

1901: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolor after-work hour

1902: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolors deepened , Lauenburg farmer

1904: Louisiana Purchase Exposition (World Exhibition in St. Louis ) - Together with other members of the Association of Artists and Art Friends in Berlin - miniatures on ivory (portraits) of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Empress Auguste Victoria as well as needle paintings

1906: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolor Förster's favorite

1907: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolor Thuringian peasant woman

1908: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolor Young girl with flowers

1909: Large art exhibition in Düsseldorf - a watercolor

1913: Great Berlin art exhibition - watercolor Madonna

1916: Great Berlin art exhibition - portrait study

1918: An art exhibition in Berlin - watercolor Madonna under blossom trees

Posthumously

1933: An exhibition in Pinneberg , organized by her sister Therese, in which her watercolors were shown

Catalog of works (selection)

Signatures: MBlock, Mathilde Block, MBlock-Niendorff, M.Block-Niendorff. (Dimensions: width × height)

1862: Portrait drawing (s) : Five heads of Niendorf farmers (pencil drawing (s))

1878: Together with Martha Endell, a commemorative sheet of the Association of Artists and Friends of Art in Berlin for Kaiser Wilhelm I , which was to commemorate the failed assassination attempt on him on May 11, 1878

1879: Portrait of a young girl ( pastel ) - District Museum Duchy of Lauenburg , Ratzeburg

1883: The Möllner postman Johannes Parbs (watercolor). Mathilde Block's address at the time can be read on the envelope the postman is holding. - private property

1884: Portrait of a woman (oil on canvas, 65.5 × 53 cm) - State Museum Schwerin (inventory number G 2667)

1885: Christ on the Cross (oil on canvas, 147 × 200 cm) - St. Georg on the mountain , Ratzeburg

Before 1886: Portrait of the pastor Konrad Remmers (* 1695; † 1722), copy of a damaged oil painting - Marienkirche , Büchen

1886: Portrait of Pastor Adolf Moraht (oil on canvas, 50 × 62 cm) - St. Nicolai , Mölln

1887: Portrait of the landscape councilor Oskar Ferdinand von Walcke-Schuldt on Goldensee (oil on canvas, 133 × 193 cm) - District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg, Ratzeburg

1888 or before: Chalk draft of the Möllner altarpiece. He received an award. - Exhibited in 1888 or before in Mölln

1888 or before: Portrait of Hernn W. Hellmich (oil painting) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1888

1888 or before: Girl's Head (oil painting) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1888

1888: Altarpiece, crucifixion group (oil on canvas, 166 × 314 cm) - St. Nicolai, Mölln, now on the back of the altar

1889 or before: On the journey (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1889 and 1891

1889 or before: Invalid (watercolor (or drawing)) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1889

1889 or before: Girl's Head (watercolor (or drawing)) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1889

1891 or before: From past time ( From a by-gone time ) (watercolor) - Issued in 1891 in Poznan and in 1893 in Chicago

1892 or before: Two children's heads (watercolor) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1892

1892 or before: Erholungsstünchen (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1892

1892: Portrait of the cathedral provost Johannes Rußwurm (1814–1890) (oil on canvas, 61 × 74 cm) - Exhibited in 1892 in Berlin - Ratzeburg Cathedral

1892: Portrait of the captain Johann Adam Leiß von Langeoog (also Leiss , foreman from 1861 to 1872) (watercolor) - Deutsches Schifffahrtsmuseum , Bremerhaven

1893 or before: Skat in der Bude (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1893 and 1898

1893: Portrait of Mrs. EW (watercolor (or drawing)) - exhibited in Berlin in 1893

1894 or before: Double portrait of a boy and a girl - exhibited in Berlin in 1894

1894 or before: Double portrait of two boys (watercolor) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1894

1894: Girl with chrysanthemums (watercolor, 31 × 37.5 cm)

1894: Triptych - Paulus, Christ on the Cross, John the Baptist (oil on canvas, outer parts 35 × 110 cm, middle part 63 × 193 cm) - St. John's Church, Sterley (removed in 1954 and returned in 2002 or 2003)

1895 or before: Painting Portrait of Dr. E. - Issued in Berlin in 1895

1895 or before: Gobelin (tapestry with artistic embroidery) - exhibited in Lübeck in 1895

1896: Maria (oil on canvas), copy of Maria's head from the Möllner Altarpiece from 1888 - private property

1896: Portrait of Johann Christian Mirow (oil on canvas, 56 × 71 cm) - Duchy of Lauenburg District Museum, Ratzeburg

1896: Portrait of the superintendent Dr. Albert Robert Brömel (oil on canvas, 56 × 71 cm) - District Museum, Duchy of Lauenburg, Ratzeburg

1897 or before: Painting Portrait of Mr. Hans Beringer - exhibited in Berlin in 1897

1897: Bethlehemitin (watercolor, 38.5 × 57 cm) - exhibited in Berlin in 1897 - private collection

1898: Triptych - Emmaus disciples, risen Christ, women at the grave (oil on canvas, outer parts 56 × 144 cm and middle part 64 × 159 cm) - St. Abundus Church , Lassahn

1899 or before: In thoughts (watercolor) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1899

1899: Portrait of Eleonore Anna Helene von Seidlitz and Ludwigsdorf (watercolor, 31 × 39 cm) - private collection

1890s: Four panels with figures of saints: Peter, Paul, John the Evangelist, Matthew (oil on wood, each 25 × 48 cm) - Maria-Magdalenen-Kirche, Mustin ,

1900: Frisian peasant woman (watercolor)

1901: Predella , Christ with disciples and the unbelieving Thomas (oil on canvas, 127 × 42.5 cm) - St. Nicolai, Mölln

1901 or before: Deepened (watercolor) - Exhibited in 1901 and 1902 in Berlin

1901 or before: After-work hour (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1901

1902: Lauenburg peasant woman (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1902

1903 or before: painting Am Spinnrad

1903: Förster's darling or we too ! (Watercolor, 29 × 44 cm (1911); 20 × 44 cm (1916)) - Exhibited in Berlin in 1906

1904 or before: Miniatures on ivory: Portraits of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his wife Empress Auguste Victoria - exhibited in 1904 in St. Louis

1904 or before: Needle Paintings - Exhibited in 1904 in St. Louis

1904: Crucifixion painting - Gladau village church

Before 1906: Blessing Christ (glass window) for St. Anne's Church, Niendorf ad St. , whereabouts unknown

1906: The Last Supper (oil on canvas, 173 × 69 cm), donated by Mathilde Block as an altarpiece for the St. Anna Church, Niendorf ad St. (It was removed from the church in 1964)

1906: Claus Hinrich Gätjens smoking a pipe in an armchair (Mayor of Pinneberg) (watercolor) - private property, Bremen

1907 or before: Thuringian farmer (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1907

1908 or before: Young girl with flowers (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1908

Before 1911: Girl on the lawn (watercolor, 46 × 31 cm)

1912: Woman in hat at a table with tablecloth and flowers (watercolor)

1913 or before: Madonna (watercolor) - exhibited in Berlin in 1913

1916 or before: Portrait study - exhibited in Berlin in 1916

1918 or before: Madonna under blossom trees (watercolor) - exhibited in 1918 in Berlin

1921: Portrait of Claus Hinrich Gätjens (Mayor of Pinneberg) (oil on canvas) - Pinneberg , Council Chamber

1921: Portrait of Christoph Kosack (Mayor of Pinneberg) (oil on canvas) - Pinneberg, Council Chamber

1921: Youth portrait of Count Albrecht von Hardenberg with coat of arms and dog (watercolor, 34 × 44 cm)

1924: Portrait of Franz Heinsohn (Mayor of Pinneberg) (oil on canvas) - Pinneberg, Council Chamber

1925: Portrait of a uniform with the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern and the Iron Cross (watercolor, 40 × 50 cm)

1929: View of Fahltskamp Street, No. 49 - 51 , Pinneberg, whereabouts unknown (there is still a black and white image of the picture in the Pinneberg City Archives)

1929: Twelve pen drawings with religious motifs as head strips in the children's hymn book for Protestant church services "Cantata!", Edited by Rudolf Weber (clergyman at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church ), Frankfurt an der Oder, 1929

1 ???: Older woman reading the Reichsbote in the corner of the room by the window. A cat at the feet (oil on canvas, 33 × 48 cm)
1 ???: Chest portrait of a little girl (watercolor, 21 × 27 cm)
1 ???: Lady in Rococo costume at a small secretary, looking at a miniature (oil on canvas, 48 × 62 cm)

Publications

Gert Schlechtriem (Introduction): Sailing Ships - Pictures from the German Maritime Museum , picture folder 1 (with 12 pictures. Mathilde Block-Niendorf is one of the 9 mentioned painters. Possibly a portrait of Captain Johann Adam Leiß from 1892), Publisher: JH Schmalfeld, Bremen, 1975

literature

Johann Friedrich Burmester: Contributions to the church history of the Duchy of Lauenburg , Ratzeburg, 1832, p. 98 ( digitized version )
Block-Niendorff, Mathilde. In: Käthe, Paula and all the rest : Artists' dictionary. Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen eV (Ed.), Kupfergraben, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-89181-411-9 , p. 25
Niendorf on the Stecknitz. 1194-1994. A village book , editor Jens Ulbricht, Niendorf 1994
Ulrike Wolff-Thomsen: Block-Niendorff, Mathilde. In: Ulrike Wolff-Thomsen: Lexikon Schleswig-Holsteinischer Künstlerinnen , Städtisches Museum Flensburg (ed.), Verlag Boyens & Co., Heide 1994, ISBN 3-8042-0664-6 , pp. 29, 66
Lauenburgische Heimat , issue 190, Ratzeburg, 2012

Web links

Commons : Mathilde Block - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Articles and pictures by and about Mathilde Block by Klaus J. Dorsch on the website of the Duchy of Lauenburg District Museum
Photo of the family grave of Mathilde Block, her sister and her brother-in-law in Niendorf ad St.

Individual evidence

↑ Klaus J. Dorsch: Mathilde Block. An emancipated painter of the 19th century from Niendorf ad Stecknitz . Ed .: District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg. S. 1–3 ( kmrz.de ).

↑ Mention in the general artist lexicon

↑ Klaus J. Dorsch: Mathilde Block. An emancipated painter of the 19th century from Niendorf ad Stecknitz . Ed .: District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg. S. 3–11 ( kmrz.de ).

^ Block-Niendorff, Mathilde. In: Käthe, Paula and all the rest : Artists' dictionary. Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen eV (Ed.), Kupfergraben, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-89181-411-9 , p. 25

↑ Text reference from The Prodigal Son by Ewald Vetter, 1955

^ Entry ( Memento from December 19, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) in the report, as a PDF file, of the Schleswig-Holstein State Office for Monument Preservation, page 14

↑ Klaus J. Dorsch: Mathilde Block. An emancipated painter of the 19th century from Niendorf ad Stecknitz . Ed .: District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg. S. 11-12 ( kmrz.de ).

↑ Klaus J. Dorsch: Mathilde Block. An emancipated painter of the 19th century from Niendorf ad Stecknitz . Ed .: District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg. S. 18-20 ( kmrz.de ).

^ Entry in the address book of the city of Nordhausen for the year 1904

↑ ^a ^b Entry in the exhibition catalog

↑ Articles in newspapers. It is stated on the Mathilde Block-Niendorff website , but if one reads the announcements of the exhibitions under Jena , it is mainly floral motifs, and the last article on the exhibition in Weimar says Mathilde Block, Nordhausen . In addition, the Thuringian cities of Nordhausen and Jena are only about 85 km from each other as the crow flies and they could have been Martilde Block-Nordhausen's home exhibitions, so to speak , and that she exhibited at least seven times in Jena at the Thuringian Exhibition Association of Visual Artists , and it is then presumably a Thuringian artist. There is nothing to suggest that it is Mathilde Block-Niendorff.

^ Block, Mathilde. In: Käthe, Paula and all the rest: Artists' dictionary. Verein der Berliner Künstlerinnen eV (Ed.), Kupfergraben, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-89181-411-9 , p. 25

^ Flower piece by Mathilde Block (Nordhausen) at the Mehlis auction house

^ Proof of Betty Mutzenbecher

↑ Entry in the handbook and address book of the Pinneberg district in 1903 - Registered as Hermann , again as Herman on the tombstone in Niendorf ad St.

↑ Klaus J. Dorsch: Mathilde Block. An emancipated painter of the 19th century from Niendorf ad Stecknitz . Ed .: District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg. S. 5 ( kmrz.de ).

↑ Klaus J. Dorsch: Mathilde Block. An emancipated painter of the 19th century from Niendorf ad Stecknitz . Ed .: District Museum of the Duchy of Lauenburg in Ratzeburg. S. 13 ( kmrz.de ).