Dachau art colony

The Dachau art colony was an artists' colony located in Dachau, Germany, that flourished from around 1890 until 1914.

History

In the early 19th century, the then-bucolic village of Dachau (located just 12 miles from Munich) began attracting landscape painters.[1] By the second half of the century, Barbizon-influenced painters like Carl Spitzweg and Christian Morgenstern, and academic painters like Wilhelm von Diez and Eduard Schleich the Elder had worked in and around Dachau.[1]

A new era opened in 1888 when the German painter Adolf Hölzel moved to Dachau.[2] In 1897 he and several other avant-garde artists — notably Ludwig Dill and Arthur Langhammer — set up the "New Dachau" art school in Dachau that attracted artists from all over Europe, especially rural genre painters, landscape painters, and printmakers.[2] Many stayed and formed a colony, drawn both by the picturesque surrounding moors stretching to the distant Alps and by the lower cost of living than in nearby Munich.[2][1] Among those drawn to the art colony were Fritz von Uhde,[3] Walther Klemm[4], Gertrud Staats[5], and Carl Thiemann.[4] The architect Georg Ludwig designed a group of residences for Dachau artists.[6]

The new colony achieved national recognition in 1898 when Hölzel, Dill, and Langhammer mounted a joint exhibition in Berlin under the title "The Dachauer".[1] So many artists passed through Dachau during its first fifteen years that certain subjects and views were reproduced repeatedly.[6] One especially popular subject was an old cottage surrounded by ancient poplars, known as the 'Moss Hut' (Moosschwaige).[6] The nearby moorland, called the Dachauer Moos, was another popular subject.[6]

The heyday of the colony lasted only until 1914, when many artists left to join the military during World War I and never returned.[1] In addition, new developments in art during the postwar era — especially the rise of urban and industrial subjects — began to leave Dachau colony artists behind.[1] After World War II, the art colony was nearly forgotten as Dachau became associated in most people's minds above all with the Dachau concentration camp.[1]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Dachau Before Dachau: European Artist Colony 1860-1914". Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 Marcuse, Harold. Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933-2001. Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 17–18.
  3. ↑ West, Shearer. The Visual Arts in Germany 1890-1937: Utopia and Despair. Manchester University Press, 2000, p. 43.
  4. 1 2 "Carl Thiemann and some Dachau colleagues". The Linosaurus, Dec. 30, 2012.
  5. ↑ Ratajczak, Elżbieta. "Staats Gertrud". Słownik Biograficzny Ziemi Jeleniogórskiej. Retrieved 13 August 2018.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Lübbren, Nina. Rural Artists' Colonies in Europe, 1870–1910. Manchester University Press, 2001, pp. 4, 117.
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