Otto Dix

[Hedley Malloch]

The following may be of interest if you have £300k to spare ...

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/mar/05/large-selection-of-otto-dix-works-to-be-auctioned-by-sothebys

[ilkley remembers]

It will be interesting to see if the 200-300k estimate is on the low side given the provenance of the 'Der Krieg' portfolio.

 

I wonder if Germany employed war artists during WW1 as most of their war art seems to date from the post war period

[AOK4]

26 minutes ago, ilkley remembers said:

 

I wonder if Germany employed war artists during WW1 as most of their war art seems to date from the post war period

 

Yes, they did. Especially the Bavarians are well documented because of an exhibition and accompanying publication by the Bavarian Military Museum some years ago.

[ilkley remembers]

1 hour ago, AOK4 said:

Yes, they did. Especially the Bavarians are well documented because of an exhibition and accompanying publication by the Bavarian Military Museum some years ago.

 

Thank you I will try and find out about this

 

[GreyC]

They had quite a few, not only for the Navy, also for the Army. Here a photo from my collection with the crownprince and painter Felix Schwormstädt. He worked for the HAPAG and North German Lloyd and during the war for the Leipziger illustrierte Zeitung, and the official BUFA, the Bild und Filmamt as part of the army press and public relation office.

 

Edited 6 March , 2021 by GreyC

[GreyC]

And here from my collection the permit for Schwormstädt´s famous colleague navy painter Claus Bergen to enter the restricted areas at the port of Wilhelmshaven. Bergen was/is famous for his submarine paintings.

GreyC

[ilkley remembers]

2 hours ago, GreyC said:

Felix Schwormstädt

 

2 hours ago, GreyC said:

Claus Bergen

 

Thank you for highlighting these two artists. Their artistic response to conflict seems to be a more traditional heroic representation which I would imagine is easier when dealing with fighting at sea or in the air. 

[GreyC]

Yes, you´re probably right. Whereas Schwormstädt was an allrounder with regards to sujets, Bergen concentrated on the navy, especially submarines.

GreyC

 

[knittinganddeath]

On 06/03/2021 at 13:30, ilkley remembers said:

I will try and find out about this

I don't know if you are also interested in art that was not necessarily produced by military artists. If so, then you might want to look at German newspapers. For example, Das llustrierte Blatt from Frankfurt contains a lot of sketches and paintings by artists both professional and amateur. The publication especially liked to highlight the work of local soldiers, who often sent sketches from the field. (They also published this photo of "Prof. Hans v. Hanek, the well-known war painter, drawing on the battlefield.")

 

Some examples:

 

Unteroffizier A. Schnier, "currently in the field"
"Ein französischer Gasangriff"

A French gas attack
https://hwk1.hebis.de/hebis-ffm/periodical/pageview/1348768

 

Hermann Gurbal (Girbel? Gabel?)
"Transport von Verwundeten"

Transporting the Wounded
https://hwk1.hebis.de/hebis-ffm/periodical/pageview/1347931

 

Carl Baum
5 drawings including a self-portrait and advancing artillery
https://hwk1.hebis.de/hebis-ffm/periodical/pageview/1347871

 

Hans Jacoby
"Gezeichnet im Biwak nach einem heissen Kampfe in Lothringen auf erbeutetem französischen Papier"

Drawn in camp on captured French paper after the heat of battle in Lorraine
https://hwk1.hebis.de/hebis-ffm/periodical/pageview/5809

 

Whether or not the paper's provenance is real, it's a good story!

 

Erich Erler 

"Radierungsfolge: Der Krieg"

Series of Etchings: The War
https://hwk1.hebis.de/hebis-ffm/periodical/pageview/1348687

 

According to an online biography, "The horrors [Erler] witnessed left him unable to pursue art for a time; after completing the War and From the Front cycles, he retired with his wife to Icking and worked as a farm laborer for several years."

 

 

[ilkley remembers]

3 hours ago, knittinganddeath said:

I don't know if you are also interested in art that was not necessarily produced by military artists. If so, then you might want to look at German newspapers. For example, Das llustrierte Blatt from Frankfurt contains a lot of sketches and paintings by artists both professional and amateur. The publication especially liked to highlight the work of local soldiers, who often sent sketches from the field. (They also published this photo of "Prof. Hans v. Hanek, the well-known war painter, drawing on the battlefield."

 

Thank you for these links and what a wonderful resource. It is interesting to see the parallels between popular wartime art in Germany and Britain and how the conflict is represented. German war artists who were active during 1914-18 do not seem to be as well known as the post war Expressionists like Dix, Meidner and Beckmann who represented their personal trauma through art.

Edited 8 March , 2021 by ilkley remembers

[bierast]

Countless German soldier-artists of every level of skill also had their work printed on postcards during the war. Many units had their own acknowledged artist, whose postcards were sold through the unit's canteen. Sadly we know very little about most of them.

This card is one of a series by 'Hamm', a cartoonist belonging to the 2. Batterie of Saxon Feldartillerie-Regiment 77 (24. Infanterie-Division, on the southern half of the Ploegsteert / Armentières front until summer 1916).

 

[bierast]

Note that although not born in the Kingdom of Saxony, Dix served (due to his pre-war residence there) in the Royal Saxon Army. He was called up on 22nd August 1914 as an Ersatz-Reservist (part of the approximately half of the eligible male population who were passed over for training in peacetime). Initially he was trained as an artilleryman with II. Ersatz-Abteilung / Feldartillerie-Regiment 48 in Dresden, at the same time that my own great-grandfather (a war volunteer) was also training there! In October he was transferred to the Ersatz-Abteilung if the neighbouring Feldartillerie-Regiment 12.

Despite now being a trained artilleryman, Dix was inexplicably transferred to the infantry in February 1915 and trained as a machine-gunner. He was sent to the front on 21st September 1915 with Feld-MG-Zug 390, an independent machine-gun section attached to Reserve-Jäger-Bataillon 12 of 23. Reserve-Division / XII. Reservekorps in the Champagne. He thus arrived just in time for the French autumn offensive in Champagne, the bloodiest battle fought by the Saxon Army that year. He was later with Reserve-Infanterie-Regiment 102 of the same division. 

[GreyC]

In August or September of 1918 Otto Dix, as Unteroffizier, was slightly wounded.

GreyC

[Michael Lowrey]

Bergen’s submarine paintings were largely a function of him going along on a patrol with U 53 in the summer of 1917.