Melly Bachrich

Melly Bachrich , actually Amélie Bachrich ( May 2, 1899 in Vienna - May 15, 1984 in Pinner, London ) was an Austrian ex-libris artist who had to flee the Nazi regime in 1938 due to her origins .

After her de-registration in Vienna for Kingswood , Surrey , England, there are no more signs of life from her. Presumably she no longer worked artistically in exile. The Rieger antiquarian bookshop reports that she was buried in London in 1984.

life and work

She was the only daughter of Heinrich Bachrich (February 1, 1868 - September 20, 1935), who came from a large family and whose father was born in Slovakia, and Jeanette nee. Bodenstein (born on September 15, 1873 in Vienna), who also came from a large family and whose father was born in Galicia. Heinrich Bachrich was a commercial employee and general secretary of Metallzentrale-AG during the First World War. Melly Bachrich attended the Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt in Vienna from 1916 to 1922 , where she was taught lithography, etching, xylography and related graphics.

As early as 1922, Artur Wolf Verlag published a portfolio with ten of her etched bookplates. The portfolio "100 German Master Exlibris" published in the same year by the same publisher contains three etchings by the artist. The Viennese bookseller Hans Sachsel , for whom she also designed an ex-libris, also published a portfolio with ten color etchings by Bachrich for Hans Bethge's The Chinese Flute in 1922 in the publishing house of his bookstore F. Lang . Her etchings are clearly influenced by Japonism , show unreal scenes and impress with their fine linework. She designed bookplates for a number of well-known personalities from the German-speaking cultural area, which testify to the security of content and style in a variety of mythological and literary topics. Among other things, show their ex-libris etchings

children playing on a divan look at a puppet theater for the opera singer Claire Born ,
a whistling faun and a sitting mermaid in the undergrowth for Hermann Brenk,
an Asian temple under a birch, in front of it scholars with books and a lady with hoop skirt for Paula Brüll,
a flying male nude for screenwriter and director Alfred Fekete (1887–1945),
a clearing in the forest with a man, walking to the left, followed by a pair of nudes and a faun playing music, a scene from Richard Beer-Hofmann's Der Graf von Charolais , for Siegfried Glück (1888–1942),
a man with a bass violin driving away death, rats and critics, for Dr. Joseph Herzka,
allegorical figures in an antique archway, in front of it a lion, above a boy nude with a cat and soap bubbles, for Walter Lenck,
a woman seated in front of a Mongol prince for the artist Jella Reif ,
many fairy tale characters over an open book for the bookseller Hans Sachsel ,
a female nude dancing in a meadow, above a dragon and a man at the piano, next to it a cello player and violinist as an ex-musica for the pianist and composer Otto Schulhof .

From 1924 she produced a series of fashion drawings and humorous illustrations for articles in the Viennese fashion and family magazine Moderne Welt . In 1925 and 1926 she also designed a number of covers in tempera for this magazine, for example "Flirt on the Redoute", "Spring in Nice", "Panic Scare", "Im Bois de Boulogne" or "Christmas Market" (all 1925) . From 1931 she was a member of the Association of Austrian Commercial Graphics (BÖG). In the early 1930s, she took on a number of book illustration and book decorations . In the academic year 1930/31 and then again from 1934 to 1938 she was enrolled as a visiting student at the Kunstgewerbeschule Vienna , where she was taught by Viktor Schufinsky and Hertha Larisch-Ramsauer , among others . The focus of her studies was now in the areas of nature study, study of human form and ornamental writing.

After 1936 no artistic works can be proven. In December 1938 she had to flee to England. There their traces are lost.

Collections

Works by the artist can be found in the following institutions:

Publications

Bookplate , ten original etchings, Artur Wolf Verlag, Vienna 1922, produced in a one-time edition of 350 copies, the first fifty hand-signed
The Chinese flute , ten color etchings for Hans Bethge's adaptations of Chinese poetry, Verlag der Buchhandlung F. Lang 1922 (the lithographed cover of the portfolio is also by Melly Bachrich)

Holdings

100 German master bookplates , Artur Wolf Verlag, Vienna 1922 (with three works by the artist)
Illustrations for: A. Allen: Getting and staying slim , 1931
Title vignettes for: L. Toepfer, Sonnets from Paris , 1936

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England [Ancestry.de]
^ KulturPool: Ex Libris Siegfried Glück , accessed on December 31, 2018

personal data
SURNAME	Bachrich, Melly
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bachrich, Amélie (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian bookplate artist and illustrator
DATE OF BIRTH	May 2, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	May 15, 1984
Place of death	Pinner, London

[1] Calendar of the Grants of Probate and Letters of Administration made in the Probate Registries of the High Court of Justice in England [Ancestry.de]

[2] KulturPool: Ex Libris Siegfried Glück , accessed on December 31, 2018