 |
| The Bound Man, circa 1907-1909. |
*
 |
| Three Archers, circa 1911. |
 |
| (This detail is from a different "pull" of the etching.) |
 |
| Study for or variation on "Three Archers," circa 1909-10. |
*
 |
| Self-portrait, 1908. |
Erich Wolfsfeld (27 April 1884, Krojanke/Krajenka, Prussia/Poland - 29 March 1956, London), German etcher, painter, and teacher. After spending his childhood in Berlin, from 1902 to 1913, he studied at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts where he focused, particularly, on printmaking. He also studied in Rome and London, as well as in Paris at the Académie Julien under Jules Lefebvre. In 1911 he won the Kaiser Wilhelm Gold Medal. By 1914 he had exhibited in Berlin, Leipzig, and Vienna to good notices, but his early success was interrupted by the First World War. Serving in the German army as an officer and a trainer of military police dogs, he was still able to work during his service, and produced a number of drawings of military subjects. After the war, in 1920, he was appointed professor of painting and etching at Berlin Academy, where his pupils included the painter Lotte Laserstein. He also travelled widely in North Africa and the Middle East, frequently depicting Arab subjects. He held his professorship at the Academy until 1936, when he was forced out due to his Jewish origins. Three years later, he fled to Britain, joining his wife who had preceded him there. In August of that year Graves Art Gallery in Sheffield opened a solo exhibition of his work, only to cancel it two days later owing to Britain's entry into the Second World War. The following June he was among a large number of German-born artists interned on the Isle of Man. After his release, he initially resettled in Sheffield, then moved to London. He went on to hold various exhibitions in England, and was an associate member of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, exhibiting frequently in its shows, as well as with the Royal Academy of Arts. Several exhibitions of his work have been held since his death in London at the age of seventy-one.
The East side of London and Richmond had a sizable population of Germans and subjects of German descent before the war.
ReplyDeleteThe most famous of course are members of the royal family.
The churches of St.George and St. Paul were their religious centers.
There were and still are a few German schools and culture centers. Many German subjects worked in the sugar refineries and in the meat and baking trades in London before the war.
During the war British subjects of German descent, Germans and refugees from the Axis countries were sent to relocation camps on the Idle of Man (civilians) and the Isle of Wight (pows and a few civilians). There were separate camps for women, families and married couples. Internees were catagorized A for enemy aliens, B for suspect aliens and C for friendly aliens. There was strife at the camps as everyone had their own political views about Britain, Germany and the war.
Some members of my own family were sent to Mooragh and Rushen, after the war they returned to London, later my parents boarded the RMS Saxonia in tourist class, and moved to Canada in 1954 where I was born.
Being an artist Wolfsfeld was most likely sent to the Hutchinson camp that housed primarily artists, some of them famous, on the Isle of Man, other sources say he was sent to one of the camps on the Isle of Wight. It was said he had to use shoe black in place of paints during his internment.
Towards the end of his internment Wolfsfeld and his wife divorced.
🇬🇧🇨🇦
Very interesting information; thank you for sharing this!
Deleteincredible.
ReplyDeleteErich Wolfsfeld was my Great Uncle. He and my mother were apparently the only of my blood relatives to survive and escape Nazi Germany. I have some knowledge of Uncle Erich's life and works, and I have been fortunate to return to our family a very large number of his original artworks and of relevant literature. I maintain contact with other of our extended "Wolfsfeld" family in the US, Canada, various European countries, and Australia (almost all of whom had inherited at least one Wolfsfeld artwork, and many of whom had no idea of that artwork's provenance).
ReplyDeleteIt is really nice to see these posts; thank you, Stephilius! Re "The Archers" (the threesome...the second and final state of the etching), it was in fact for that etching that Uncle Erich was awarded the Kaiser Wilhelm gold medal which you mention. The lone archer (ultimately the central figure of the threesome) is considered the first state of the etching...which in its completion incorporated the use of burin, drypoint, and aquatint. We can narrow the creation date a bit, to 1909-1910; and the Kaiser Wilhelm award almost certainly to 1911.
Re the portrait, please take no offense, but it is of one Dr. von Schulenburg (not of Wolfsfeld). I have never been able to find any detail regarding this Dr. von Schulenburg and his relationship to Wolfsfeld. As you probably know, Uncle Erich in fact did a number of self portraits over the years; I have several and lament that I apparently cannot attach images to this anonymous post.
To come full circle, re "The Bound Man": this is one of the first two Wolfsfeld artworks I ever acquired...quite a few years and well over a hundred acquisitions ago. I gave it to my older daughter, herself a talented artist but then not yet aware of her Great Great Uncle Erich, and I not knowing at the time that she had created a very similar image. Small world.
Thank you again!
Thank you SO much for this information; I really appreciate it! I'll remove the image of Dr. von Schulenburg - I'm very grateful for that correction - and I'll adjust the dates on the etching and the gold medal.
DeleteI found a rather wonderful self-portrait of your great uncle to replace the one not-of-him that I had shared mistakenly; I do hope that this one is -actually- the artist, himself. Again, thank you for your very helpful and interesting response.
DeleteStephilius, thank you for your acknowledgment! I'm glad that I could contribute.
ReplyDeleteYou did, in fact, find an etching recognized as one of Wolfsfeld's self-portraits...to my knowledge considered the earliest of the several proclaimed self-portraits he did over the years. Uncle Erich also did "self-portraits" in his depictions of biblical characters in a number of his artworks...at least once modeling the faces of several men after his own in a single work, i.e., three or four of the 15 men standing next to the youngster in his large etching of "Joseph Being Sold Into Slavery".
Best regards.