Toni Elster

Toni Elster (author and date unclear)

Munich train station (undated)

Toni Elster , actually Meta Antonie Elster, (born October 5, 1861 in Bremen , † December 15, 1948 in Munich ) was a German painter .

Life

Toni Elster came from a Bremen merchant family. Many trips to France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland shaped her and her love for nature. She had a consistent, but rather unusual training path for the time. It wasn't until she was 36 years old that she decided to become a painter on her sickbed. After her recovery, Elster moved to Munich in 1897. At first she mainly occupied herself with watercolors. Then she made a trip to Scotland to do landscape studies with the watercolourist John Terris, who was very much appreciated at the time . In 1897, when she returned to Munich, she took lessons from the landscape painter Professor Fritz Baer , co-founder of the Luitpold Group of artists , of which she became a member in 1904. During this time and on her study trips, she created etchings, lithographs and paintings, mainly landscapes in different moods of the day. She began to lead a life between her studios in Munich and Bremen, in summer in Munich and in winter in Bremen. Before starting her summer trip to Munich, Elster regularly visited her artist friend Marie Stumpe in the artists' colony Dötlingen . Together they both searched for landscape motifs in Dötlingen , which were then recorded in sketches.

Artistic work

Boldness, vehemence and brushstrokes, the use of color as a light phenomenon, among others , make you think of John Constable . Elster's very own style is particularly evident in her port images. The section and the division of the area, the often “empty” foreground, which sometimes extends far into the middle, arouse associations with photography and Japanese woodcuts, as does the often excessive emphasis on the outlines with a black contour. This enormous graphic power is expressed even more strongly in her charcoal drawings. Additional tension arises between the linear grid that she places over the motifs and the impression of the more impressionistic, flooding light. Other paintings, such as B. "Summer's Day", in their reduction and intensity, are more reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh than John Constable.

Exhibitions

As early as 1900 she exhibited in the Munich Glass Palace. She became a member of the Luitpold Group (from 1904) and in this context participated almost annually in exhibitions in Berlin (1909), Munich, Düsseldorf (1907, 1911), Hanover (1913), Hamburg and Bremerhaven. She made her debut in Bremen in 1922 with the Nordwestdeutscher Künstlerbund. On the occasion of the spectacular exhibition in the Bremer Kunsthalle in 1924, the people of Bremen were so enthusiastic about Toni Elster that almost all 22 works on display were sold. She received her last appreciation during her lifetime in 1941 on the occasion of her 80th birthday in the Graphisches Kabinett, where she was regularly represented. After that, a full 50 years passed before the work of the painter, who died in 1948, was brought back to the public's attention when the Overbeck Foundation presented it in 1992.

Press

“They say Miss Elster is an elderly lady. If that is true, how was it possible that so much skill remained hidden for so long? ”When Elster and Margarethe von Reinken took part in a collective exhibition in the Bremen Kunsthalle in 1924 , the press was visibly surprised. One admires the “complete mastery of the craft” and sees in her exhibits “masterpieces of an impression that has all means and yet knows how to maintain that economy that only well-considered security can afford ... Frl. Elster is the most free in their harbor motifs ... “. It sounds no less enthusiastic in the separate article that Rudolf Alexander Schröder , architect, artist and art critic, dedicated to the 63-year-old painter on the occasion of the 1924 exhibition. He attests to her a boldness reminiscent of "John Constable (1776–1837)" and a "technique that touches the virtuoso without ever falling into the mere virtuoso"; Furthermore, he sees in the “well-calculated” linework and the economical and clever “economy of their craft” skills “of a thoroughly masculine density and balance”. But he “only” compares her with Paula Modersohn-Becker , Anna Plate and Clara Rilke-Westhoff and not with other male artist colleagues. In doing so, from the point of view of that time, he is returning her to the place that women artists were entitled to, a place in the second row.

plant

Her work, which also includes large-format canvas paintings, is now largely scattered in private ownership and, apart from a few works, is not known as such. Some of the pictures are in the collections of the Bremer Kunsthalle, in the Focke Museum, in the municipal gallery and in the graphic cabinet. In addition, the Oldenburg State Museum is preserving two paintings characteristic of Toni Elster, “Kutter im Hafen” and “Moorlandschaft (Schneeschmelze)”, which exemplarily demonstrate the extraordinary talent of the painter and the comments mentioned by the reviewers right up to Rudolf Alexander Schröder's conclusion confirm: “Worpswede with all due respect, but our winter and our actual water, ie the Weser and its two banks and harbors, has never been painted in the same way as Toni Elster.” While the moor landscape reveals that the surrounding landscape is also true von Bremen, the scene that Worpsweder could be a welcome motif, shows itself with the cutter in the harbor , a painting typical of Toni Elster's choice of subject and composition. It is astonishing that the painter discovered the port as a theme for herself at all. For a woman with the social background of Toni Elster, it was of course frowned upon at the time to be alone in the Bremen harbor district with the study portfolio. Obviously, however, Toni Elster's interest in the diverse maritime world outweighed the scruples about the convention. Evidence of her forays along packing houses, sheds and cargo ships are quick and safe, contoured charcoal drawings that express her artistic temperament particularly well. They tell of an enormous graphic power that finally affects the painting, where it accompanies the impressionistic style of painting with dark contours.

Individual references, comments

1. ↑ Partly cited: Inge Jacob from: Hermine Oberbeck-Rohte and Bremer Malerinnen around 1900 , published by Stiftung Fritz and Hermine Overbeck e. V., Bremen, 1992 and Birgit Nachtwey from: ... and they did paint! .

literature

• Inge Jacob: Toni Elster in Hermine Overbeck-Rohte and the Bremen painters around 1900 : Ed. Foundation Fritz and Hermine Overbeck eV, Bremen 1992.
• Nils Aschenbeck : Dötlingen Artists' Colony , pp. 26 and 50, ISBN 3-932292-78-2
• Birgit Nachtwey in: ... and they did paint! , ISBN 978-3-00-021669-5 .
• Hannelore Cyrus : Between tradition and modernity , pages 107 to 112, ISBN 3-89757-262-1 .
• Saur General Artist Lexicon from 2002, Volume 33
• Inge Jacob: Elster, Meta Anttonie, called Toni . In: Women's history (s) , Bremer Frauenmuseum (ed.). Edition Falkenberg, Bremen 2016, ISBN 978-3-95494-095-0 .