Pranas Domšaitis

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Pranas Domšaitis (actually Franz Carl Wilhelm Domscheit ; born September 15, 1880 in Cropiens , Samland , today Russian Гаево (Gajewo) in the Kaliningrad Oblast ; † November 14, 1965 in Cape Town ) was a German-Lithuanian painter . Since 1938 he used the Lithuanian form of his name Pranas Domšaitis. He is considered one of the most important expressionist painters in South Africa, where he emigrated in 1949.

biography

Pranas Domšaitis, Nativity , oil painting

Franz Domscheit's parents' house was the village inn in Cropiens , where he grew up as the son of the innkeeper. He first learned the trade of a farmer from his father. His mother, incidentally the only one in the family who spoke the Prussian-Lithuanian dialect , supported her favorite son Franz by giving him the money for his trips to Konigsberg and Berlin .

In 1905 Franz was rejected by the academy in Königsberg because his work was lacking in talent. In 1906, Franz made his way to Berlin to see Max Liebermann , the founder of German Impressionism , who was so enthusiastic about Franz's work that he issued him a letter of recommendation. Thereupon Franz was admitted to the academy in Königsberg in 1907 and also received a scholarship. He stayed in Königsberg until 1910 , after which he studied with Lovis Corinth in Berlin. After traveling to Paris , Florence , Amsterdam and London , he stayed in Russia for half a year in 1912 . He became friends and traveled with the Berlin painter Fritz Ascher , who drew a portrait of him in 1919/20.

Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War , Edvard Munch met in Oslo , through which he found his way from Impressionism to Expressionism . Franz Domscheit achieved his breakthrough with the illustration of the book " Seele des Ostens " by Karl Scheffler . Museums in Berlin, Königsberg, Stettin and Lübeck bought his pictures. In 1919 there was an exhibition in the Ferdinand Möller gallery in Berlin and in 1921 an exhibition in the Folkwang Museum in Essen. In 1924 the painter met the soprano Adelheid Armhold , who was twenty years his junior and whom he married in 1929. He accompanied her on all of her concert engagements across Europe, among others Adelheid had great successes under Hermann Abendroth and Wilhelm Furtwängler , and in 1936 she sang a Handel role at the Olympic Games on the Berlin Dietrich-Eckardt stage .

In 1929, Franz met Emil Nolde , with whom he was related in terms of color and brushstrokes. After his painting “Adoration” was removed from a Berlin museum and incorporated into the traveling exhibition “ Degenerate Art ”, Franz Domscheit withdrew to Vorarlberg in Austria in 1938 . Since then he has only signed his works with the PD sign for Pranas Domsaitis, his Lithuanian form of name. In 1946 he exhibited eleven pictures with Lithuanian themes as part of a “ Displaced Person ” exhibition in Bregenz . Recognized as a Lithuanian, he emigrated to South Africa with his wife in 1949 .

The last words of Pranas Domšaitis show again his need, that of being uprooted:

Quote

"I'm always on the move ..." (Pranas Domšaitis)

Pranas Domšaitis is listed in the complete list of members of the German Association of Artists under his old name Franz Domscheit .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Domscheit, Franz ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on July 25, 2015) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kuenstlerbund.de

literature

  • Laima Bialopetravičienė: Pranas Domšaitis . Vilnius: Lietuvos dailės muziejus, 2002. ISBN 9986-669-22-7 .
  • Elsa Verloren van Themart: Pranas Domsaitis / Franz Domscheit (1980–1965) . Struik, Cape Town, 2nd ed. 1976. ISBN 0-86977-070-5

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Domšaitis, Pranas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Domscheit, Franz Carl Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Cropiens
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1965
Place of death Cape Town