Nelly Dix

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Nelly Dix (born June 14, 1923 in Düsseldorf ; † January 9, 1955 ) was a German writer and painter.

Life

Nelly Dix was born in 1923 as the first child of the painter Otto Dix and his wife Martha Koch, b. Lindner, to the world. She had two brothers, Ursus (1927–2002) and Jan (1928–2019). Until 1933 she attended a reform school in Dresden . After her father had been dismissed by the National Socialists as a teacher at the Dresden Art Academy , she moved with her family to southern Germany. From 1936, Nelly Dix lived with her parents and siblings in the village of Hemmenhofen in what is now Gaienhofen on the Höri peninsula on Lake Constance .

The girl, who is considered to be highly intelligent and artistically gifted, was hired by the Barum travel circus at the age of 14 because of her riding skills . Nelly Dix went on tours with the circus, which took her to Poland .

She broke off her later visit to a boarding school and organized her own training. Among other things, she was in correspondence with the former secretary Heinrich Hansjakobs , the well-traveled clergyman Anton Trunz . Nelly Dix was close friends with Fritz Mühlenweg and his wife Elisabeth and referred to them as her “foster parents”. Among other things, she read Mühlenweg's later successful work, In a Secret Mission Through the Gobi Desert, as a typescript while it was being created, and she also had a lively exchange with Mühlenweg about the origin of his writings.

In 1948, Nelly Dix gave birth to twins , but they died shortly after they were born. Even after marrying the medical student Günther Thaesler, Nelly Dix continued to live in her mother's house. Their daughter Bettina was born in 1950. Nelly Dix died on January 9, 1955, presumably as a result of an abortion at the age of 31. Her daughter Bettina grew up with her grandparents Martha and Otto Dix and - after Otto Dix's death in 1969 - was adopted by Martha Dix in 1972 .

Posthumously, in 1961, her short stories, Der Herr ist fahr über Land, were published , to which Fritz Mühlenweg wrote a preface shortly before his death, and in 1964 the volume Joseph der Träumer , edited by Fritz Löffler . Other stories by Nelly Dix were partially reissued in 2010 under the title Oh, my friend, virtue is good, but love is better .

Works

Cabinet painted by Nelly Dix in her room in the house in Hemmenhofen

literature

Nelly Dix wrote her first short stories at the age of 20 while her father was in French captivity. She read the stories to family and friends as birthday and Christmas presents, but her writings remained unprinted with the exception of one poem. This was published in 1946 under the title For Judith in the December issue of the magazine Die Erzählung .

Publications:

  • 1946: For Judith (poem, in: Die Erzählung , 12, 1946)

Posthumous :

painting

As a 20-year-old she could hardly meet the demand for her pictures. Among other things, she accommodated 122 people in a picture measuring 35 cm × 40 cm.

exhibition

Between May 9 and August 30, 2020, works by Nelly Dix are on display as part of the exhibition Beruf: Künstlerin! Ten German painters can be seen on Lake Constance . The Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz presents the artist together with other artists from southern Germany.

Painting by Otto Dix depicting his daughter (selection)

From toddler to adolescence, Nelly Dix repeatedly served her father as a motif and model; The German art historian and literary scholar Fritz Löffler retrospectively described the portrayal of one's own children, which actually began with Nelly in Flowers in 1924, as "a completely new world for [Otto] Dix."

  • 1923: Sleeping baby
  • 1924: Nelly in flowers
  • 1925: Nelly in the game
  • 1927: Dix family
  • 1928: Portrait of Ursus with a top
    • Nelly with doll I
  • 1929: Nelly with doll II
    • Children playing
  • 1933: Nelly Dix 10 years old
  • 1940: Death and the Maiden
    • Nelly and Flora
  • 1941: Girl and Death: Nelly - 18 years

literature

  • Elisabeth Kantzenbach: Alias. Outlines of the life picture of Nelly Dix-Thaesler, called Nelly Alias ​​Dix - 1923/1955 . Roth b. Nbg. 2009.
  • Anne Overlack: Nelly Dix - a portrait of the artist in letters, documents and reports from contemporary witnesses. In: Hegau Yearbook 2009: Hegau - Women - History . MarkOrPlan 2009.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maik Irmisch: Aloys Greither. Dermatologist between Mozart, Hesse, Dix and Scharl . BoD, Norderstedt 2006, p. 51.
  2. ↑ Karin Schick: Otto Dix. Homage to Martha . Ed .: Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern-Ruit 2005, ISBN 3-7757-1620-3 , p. 95-97 .
  3. ↑ a b libelle.ch, Bodman-Haus, Gottlieben (CH), October 3, 2010, Ekkehard Faude, book presentation: Nelly Dix - Oh my friend, virtue is good, but love is better! (November 21, 2010)
  4. ↑ Profession: Artist! Ten German painters on Lake Constance. May 9 - August 30, 2020, Städtische Wessenberg-Galerie Konstanz; Exhibition leaflet , accessed on May 24, 2020
  5. ↑ Quoted from Jung-Hee Kim: Frauenbilder bei Otto Dix. Reality and self-confession . Lit, Münster and Hamburg 1994, p. 37.
personal data
SURNAME Dix, Nelly
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dix-Thaesler, Nelly
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer and model
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1955