![1904 photo of Anton Ažbe](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/1904_photo_of_Anton_A%C5%BEbe.jpg)
Anton Ažbe (30 May 1862 – 5 or 6 August 1905) was a
Slovene realist painter and teacher of painting.
Ažbe, crippled since birth and orphaned at the age of 8, learned painting as an apprentice to
Janez Wolf Janez may refer to:
People:
* Janez (given name), a Slovene given name
* Janež, a Slovene surname
In music:
*Janez Detd., a Belgian rock band
May also refer to a semi-pejorative term used in the Croatian North and beyond for Slovenes
The S ...
and at the Academies in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
and
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
. At the age of 30 Ažbe founded his own school of painting in
Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
that became a popular attraction for Eastern European students. Ažbe trained the "big four" Slovenian
impressionists
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
(
Rihard Jakopič
Rihard Jakopič (12 April 1869 – 21 April 1943) was a Slovene painter. He was the leading Slovene Impressionist painter, patron of arts and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pionee ...
,
Ivan Grohar
Ivan Grohar (15 June 1867 – 19 April 1911) was a Slovene Impressionist painter. Together with Rihard Jakopič, Matej Sternen, and Matija Jama, he is considered one of the leading figures of Slovene impressionism in the fin de siecle ...
,
Matej Sternen
Matej Sternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter.
Sternen was born in Verd, now part of the Carniolan municipality of Vrhnika, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and baptized ''Matthæus Str ...
,
Matija Jama
Matija Jama (4 January 1872 – 6 April 1947) was a Slovene painter. Together with Rihard Jakopič, Ivan Grohar and Matej Sternen, he is considered among the best representatives of Impressionism in the Slovene Lands.
Life
Jama was born in L ...
), a whole generation of Russian painters (
Ivan Bilibin
Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin ( rus, Ива́н Я́ковлевич Били́бин, p=ɪˈvan ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪt͡ɕ bʲɪˈlʲibʲɪn; – 7 February 1942) was a Russian illustrator and stage designer who took part in the ''Mir iskusstva'', contr ...
,
Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky ( lt, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, August 14, 1875, Novgorod – November 20, 1957, New York City) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay ...
,
Igor Grabar
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (russian: И́горь Эммануи́лович Граба́рь, 25 March 1871 in Budapest – 16 May 1960 in Moscow) was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, des ...
,
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
,
Dmitry Kardovsky
Dmitry Nicolajevich Kardovsky (Russian: Дмитрий Николаевич Кардовский; 5 September 1866 – 9 February 1943) was a Russian artist, illustrator and stage designer.
Biography
He was born near Pereslavl-Zalessky in the ...
and
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, (; November 5, Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._24_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O._S._24_October">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Old_Styl ...
, to name a few) and
Serbia
Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...
n painters
Nadežda Petrović
Nadežda Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Надежда Петровић; 11/12 October 1873 – 3 April 1915) was a Serbian painter and one of the women war photography pioneers in the region. Considered Serbia's most famous expressionist and fauvist, ...
,
Beta Vukanović
Beta Vukanović (18 April 1872 – 31 October 1972), also known as Babette Bachmayer, was a Serbian painter and centenarian.
Biography
Born in Bamberg, Upper Franconia
Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a ''Regierungsbezirk'' (adminis ...
,
Ljubomir Ivanović
Ljubomir "Ljuba" Ivanović (Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia. 24 February 1882 – Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 23 November 1945) was a Serbian painter, printmaker and draughtsman. He is considered one of the first Serbian impressionists, although ...
, Borivoje Stevanović,
Kosta Miličević
Kosta Miličević ( sr-Cyrl, Коста Миличевић; 3 June 1877 – 12 February 1920) was a Serbian impressionist painter, known mostly for his landscapes.
Biography
Kosta Miličević was born to a clerical family, with a history of se ...
, and
Milan Milovanović.
[ ]
Ažbe's training methods were adopted by Beta and
Rista Vukanović
Rista Vukanović also Risto Vukanović ( Bugovina near Trebinje, Bosnia and Hercegovina, then under the Habsburg monarchy, 16 April 1873 - Paris, France, 16 January 1918) was a Serbian painter, the husband of painter Beta Vukanović who together ...
when they took over
Kiril Kutlik Kiril Kutlik or Cyril Kutlik ( sk, Cyril Kutlík; 29 March 1869 – 4 April 1900) was a Slovak-Czech painter, educator and illustrator. He was the founder of the Serbian Drawing and Painting School, one of the first modern painting schools in Belgr ...
's
atelier
An atelier () is the private workshop or studio of a professional artist in the fine or decorative arts or an architect, where a principal master and a number of assistants, students, and apprentices can work together producing fine art or v ...
and school
and by Russian artists both at home (Grabar, Kardovsky) and in emigration (Bilibin, Dobuzhinsky).
[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 9.]
Ažbe's own undisputed artistic legacy is limited to twenty-six graphic works, including classroom studies, most of them at the
National Gallery of Slovenia
The National Gallery of Slovenia ( sl, Narodna galerija) is the national art gallery of Slovenia. It is located in the capital Ljubljana. It was founded in 1918, after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary and the establishment of the State of Sloven ...
.
His long-planned
masterpiece
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
s never materialized and, according to
Peter Selz
Peter Howard Selz (March 27, 1919 – June 21, 2019) was a German-born American art historian and museum director and curator who specialized in German Expressionism.
Biography
Peter Selz was born in Munich of Jewish parents. In 1936, aged 17, h ...
, he "never came into his own as an artist". His enigmatic personality blended together
alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...
,
chain smoking
Chain smoking is the practice of smoking several cigarettes in succession, sometimes using the ember of a finished cigarette to light the next. The term chain smoker often also refers to a person who smokes relatively constantly, though not ne ...
, bitter loneliness, minimalistic
simple living
Simple living refers to practices that promote simplicity in one's lifestyle. Common practices of simple living include reducing the number of possessions one owns, depending less on technology and services, and spending less money. Not only is ...
in private, and eccentric behaviour in public.
[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 8.] A public scarecrow and a
bohemian
Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to:
*Anything of or relating to Bohemia
Beer
* National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst
* Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors
Culture and arts
* Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...
socialite
A socialite is a person from a wealthy and (possibly) aristocratic background, who is prominent in high society. A socialite generally spends a significant amount of time attending various fashionable social gatherings, instead of having traditio ...
, Ažbe protected his personal secrets till the end, a mystery even to his students and fellow teachers. The public transformed the circumstances of his untimely death from
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
into an
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
.
[
]
Biography
Twin
Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
s Alois and Anton Ažbe were born in a peasant family in the Carniola
Carniola ( sl, Kranjska; , german: Krain; it, Carniola; hu, Krajna) is a historical region that comprised parts of present-day Slovenia. Although as a whole it does not exist anymore, Slovenes living within the former borders of the region sti ...
n village of Dolenčice near Škofja Loka
Škofja Loka (; german: Bischoflack) is a town in Slovenia. It is the economic, cultural, educational, and administrative center of the Municipality of Škofja Loka in Upper Carniola. It has about 12,000 inhabitants.
Geography
Škofja Loka lies a ...
in the Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
(today, in Slovenia
Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...
). Their father died of familial tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...
at the age of forty when the boys were seven years old.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 11.] Mother lapsed into severe mental distress (there is unreliable evidence that she later committed suicide) and the boys were placed into foster care
Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family mem ...
.[ By this time it was evident that while Alois developed normally, Anton suffered serious congenital health problems: he lagged in physical growth, his legs were weak and his spine deformed.][ His ]legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has been appointed by a court or otherwise has the legal authority (and the corresponding duty) to make decisions relevant to the personal and property interests of another person who is deemed incompetent, call ...
reasoned that Anton was not fit for farm work; after completing an elementary school he sent Anton to "study commerce" in Klagenfurt
Klagenfurt am WörtherseeLandesgesetzblatt 2008 vom 16. Jänner 2008, Stück 1, Nr. 1: ''Gesetz vom 25. Oktober 2007, mit dem die Kärntner Landesverfassung und das Klagenfurter Stadtrecht 1998 geändert werden.'/ref> (; ; sl, Celovec), usually ...
.[
After five years of living and working at a grocery store, Ažbe ran away from Klagenfurt to ]Ljubljana
Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center.
During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...
.[
At some point in the late 1870s, he met ]Janez Wolf Janez may refer to:
People:
* Janez (given name), a Slovene given name
* Janež, a Slovene surname
In music:
*Janez Detd., a Belgian rock band
May also refer to a semi-pejorative term used in the Croatian North and beyond for Slovenes
The S ...
, a Slovenian painter associated with the Nazarene movement
The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...
who handled numerous church mural commissions.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 12.] Little is known about Ažbe's experience with Wolf, apart from the facts that in 1880 Ažbe assisted Wolf with the fresco
Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...
es of the Zagorje ob Savi
Zagorje ob Savi (; german: Sagor,''Leksikon občin kraljestev in dežel zastopanih v državnem zboru,'' vol. 6: ''Kranjsko''. 1906. Vienna: C. Kr. Dvorna in Državna Tiskarna, p. 96. ''Seger an der Sau'') is a town in the Central Sava Valley in ce ...
church and, in 1882, with the facade of the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation
The Franciscan Church of the Annunciation ( sl, Frančiškanska cerkev Marijinega oznanjenja or commonly ''Frančiškanska cerkev'') is a Franciscan church located on Prešeren Square in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. It is the parish church ...
in Ljubljana.[
In the same year, Wolf helped Ažbe with admission to the ]Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria.
History
The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...
, where Anton studied for two years.[ He was dissatisfied with outdated, uninspiring Viennese training and barely made passing grades. In 1884 he relocated to the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, then a "liberal" and "modern" school as opposed to the conservative Viennese Academy.][Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 14.] There he made a superb impression on his teachers Gabriel Hackl and Ludwig von Löfftz
Ludwig von Löfftz (21 June 1845 – 3 December 1910) was a German genre and landscape painter.
Biography
He was born at Darmstadt. He was a pupil of August von Kreling and Karl Raupp at Nuremberg, then of Wilhelm von Diez at the Academy of F ...
and earned a free scholarship.[ To make a living, Ažbe teamed up with Ferdo Vesel, selling classroom works and run-of-the-mill ]kitsch
Kitsch ( ; loanword from German) is a term applied to art and design that is perceived as naïve imitation, overly-eccentric, gratuitous, or of banal taste.
The avant-garde opposed kitsch as melodramatic and superficial affiliation with ...
scenes to wholesale dealers.[ Half of Ažbe's surviving legacy dates back to the Munich Academy years; by the end of this period he was recognized as a professional portrait painter and was regularly exhibited in the Glaspalast.][
Wolf died in bitter poverty in 1884; later, Ažbe frequently spoke that shortly before death (rendered by Ažbe in chilling detail) Wolf dictated to him his last will – that he, Ažbe, must train a successor of Wolf's art, an ethnic Slovene who would surpass his seniors and strike the world with his genius.][ The free-of-charge training should last no less than eight years.][Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 13.] For this purpose, said Ažbe, Wolf entrusted Ažbe with the "secret" of his art.
It is not clear how much of the "Wolf's myth" is real; the "great Slovene painter" did not emerge and Ažbe complained that all Slovene students, apart from faithful Matej Sternen
Matej Sternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter.
Sternen was born in Verd, now part of the Carniolan municipality of Vrhnika, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and baptized ''Matthæus Str ...
, were leaving the school too early, preferring absolute freedom to the benefits of professional training.[
In 1892 Vesel and ]Rihard Jakopič
Rihard Jakopič (12 April 1869 – 21 April 1943) was a Slovene painter. He was the leading Slovene Impressionist painter, patron of arts and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pionee ...
offered Ažbe the informal job of examining and correcting the students' paintings.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 15.] The seven clients rented a study room and paid Ažbe for fixing their homework. Two months later, an inflow of new clients allowed Ažbe to rent his own premises, starting the Ažbe School.[
After a brief stay on Türkenstrasse the school relocated to its permanent base at 16, Georgenstrasse in ]Schwabing
Schwabing is a borough in the northern part of Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. It is part of the city borough 4 (Schwabing-West) and the city borough 12 (Schwabing-Freimann). The population of Schwabing is estimated about 100 ...
(the building was destroyed by an allied air raid in July 1944).[ Later Ažbe rented another building for the school classes and moved into his private workshop (also in Georgenstrasse).][Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 37.]
The school was never short of students, with a normal complement reaching 80.[ The total number of Ažbe alumni stands at around 150.][Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 38.] Some, notably Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (russian: Алексе́й Гео́ргиевич Явле́нский, translit=Alekséy Geórgiyevich Yavlénskiy) (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressioni ...
, Matej Sternen and Marianne von Werefkin
Marianne von Werefkin, born Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina ( rus, Мариа́нна Влади́мировна Верёвкина, Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina, mərʲɪˈanːə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə vʲɪˈrʲɵfkʲɪnə; – 6 Febr ...
attended the school for nearly a decade. Ažbe remained the sole instructor, except for a brief period in 1899–1900 when he hired Igor Grabar
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (russian: И́горь Эммануи́лович Граба́рь, 25 March 1871 in Budapest – 16 May 1960 in Moscow) was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, des ...
as an assistant.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 43.] Long-established competitors, the Munich Academy and the Imperial Academy of Arts
The Russian Academy of Arts, informally known as the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts, was an art academy in Saint Petersburg, founded in 1757 by the founder of the Imperial Moscow University Ivan Shuvalov under the name ''Academy of the Thre ...
in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, recognized Ažbe school and recommended it as a preparatory or "refreshment" course.[
In 1904 Ažbe, a lifelong smoker, developed ]throat cancer
Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...
and by the spring of 1905 he could hardly swallow food.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 19.] Matej Sternen noted that the feeling of near death was obvious to all witnesses.[ Ažbe agreed to a surgery that passed without immediate complications, but on 5 or 6 August 1905 Ažbe died.][
The public transformed a sad but ordinary and expected event into a ]melodrama
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or exces ...
tic urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
. Leonhard Frank
Leonhard Frank (4 September 1882 in Würzburg – 18 August 1961 in Munich) was a German expressionist writer. He studied painting and graphic art in Munich, and gained acclaim with his first novel ''The Robber Band'' (1914, tr. 1928). When a Ber ...
, who studied with Ažbe in 1904, reproduced the legend in ''Links, wo das Herz ist'' (1952): "Nobody ever saw his paintings. Nobody knew if he ever painted at all. Nobody knew his past. One chilly December night, intoxicated with cognac, he fell asleep in the snow. He was found dead in the morning. Nobody knew where he had come from." A similar story was retold by Mikhail Shemyakin
Mihail Mikhailovich Chemiakin (or Shemyakin, russian: Михаил Михайлович Шемякин, born 4 May 1943) is a Russian Painting, painter, Scenic design, stage designer, sculptor and publisher, and a controversial representative ...
.[
The school of Anton Ažbe survived its founder and existed until the onset of ]World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 91.]
Personality
Modern understanding of Ažbe's personality is based on the interpretation of biased and conflicting statements made by his alumni.[ Ažbe never wrote for the public and never attempted to formulate his own teaching methods on paper. His letters to Alois were destroyed according to the family's will; the rest of his archive contained only business papers. The only evidence of Ažbe's own handwriting is limited to three postcards and a letter to Sternen.][
It is not known if Ažbe ever had a personal life; he himself mentioned that he was engaged twice, and both marriage attempts failed.][ There was ''some'' bond between him and Kathi Kobus, owner of the Simpli pub, but they both took the secret of this relationship to their graves.][Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 39.] According to Sternen, he was consumed by a mysterious personality split that drove him into binge drinking
Binge drinking, or heavy episodic drinking, is drinking alcoholic beverages with an intention of becoming intoxicated by heavy consumption of alcohol over a short period of time, but definitions ( see below) vary considerably.
Binge drinking ...
and slovenly appearance.[ Likewise, Kandinsky wrote that Ažbe's apparently unremarkable life was itself a mystery.][
Physically, Ažbe was not a ]dwarf
Dwarf or dwarves may refer to:
Common uses
*Dwarf (folklore), a being from Germanic mythology and folklore
* Dwarf, a person or animal with dwarfism
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities
* Dwarf (''Dungeons & Dragons''), a humanoid ...
but still a man of a very short and irregular stature.[ Niko Zupanič described him as having unusually short and weak legs, with a twisted upper spine.][ His head combined a large ]cranium
The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, the ...
with a disproportionately narrow face.[ ]Igor Grabar
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (russian: И́горь Эммануи́лович Граба́рь, 25 March 1871 in Budapest – 16 May 1960 in Moscow) was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, des ...
noted that his wide forehead was covered with a web of red pulsing veins; the rest of the face was uniformly red, as if in a fever;[ at the age of 33 Ažbe seemed to be at least forty years old.][ He groomed his long chestnut moustache to the style of ]Wilhelm II
Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Empir ...
.[ He always wore black, and of the best make; in winter his attire was complete with a tall oriental ]karakul hat
A Karakul hat (Dari/Urdu/Pashto/ Uzbek/Kashmiri: ), sometimes spelled as Qaraqul hat, also called Uzbek hat and Jinnah Cap is a hat made from the fur of the Qaraqul breed of sheep. Karakul directly translates to black fur in the Uzbek language an ...
.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 16.]
The oddly shaped and expensively (if not tastelessly) dressed schoolmaster, slowly walking with a cane and always smoking, became a target of tabloids and cartoonists.[ Boys taunted him on the streets, shouting ''"Atzpe! Atzpe!"'' (incorrectly pronouncing Slovenian ''Ažbe'' in ]German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
).[Grabar, chapter 6.] Ažbe's own German was not perfect either; he, particularly, abused the word ''nähmlich'' ("namely", "that is...")[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 18.][ and was called "Professor Nähmlich". He normally spoke German in Munich but used ]Slovenian language
Slovene ( or ), or alternatively Slovenian (; or ), is a South Slavic language, a sub-branch that is part of the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is spoken by about 2.5 million speakers worldwide (excluding speake ...
in a Slavic company.
Ažbe never had a proper home, sleeping on an untidy sofa in a workshop filled with his students' paintings.[
He always painted in his studio and never ventured into open-air painting.][ Ažbe frequently spoke of his planned future masterpieces, none of which moved past the sketch stage.][ He left Munich only once, visiting ]Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...
in 1897; otherwise, his life revolved between the school and local pubs. Their owners regularly allowed a drunken Ažbe to sleep on their premises.[ With age he became more and more sedentary and replaced his daily walkouts with a circle ride on a ]tram
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
.[
Ažbe maintained ties with brother Alois but eventually severed all contacts after Alois' savvy wife reprimanded Anton for wasting too many matches lighting his cigars.][ The housewife's ]frugality
Frugality is the quality of being frugal, sparing, thrifty, prudent or economical in the consumption of consumable resources such as food, time or money, and avoiding waste, lavishness or extravagance.
In behavioral science, frugality has been ...
was completely alien to Ažbe, who never hesitated offering free tuition to students in need and lending them cash. An obituary noted that "he was a man of almost proverbial modesty... one of the most original and best-known personalities of Munich."
Ažbe as a creator
Loyal students Igor Grabar and Dmitry Kardovsky noted portraits by Ažbe for his "superb drawing" marred by dry, if not dull, paint technique.[ Modern critics divide over Ažbe's significance as a painter, not in the least because his surviving undisputed legacy is limited to twenty-six works.] Eleven of these are early paintings and classroom studies from his college years.[ Only four paintings, dated from 1890 to 1903, can be considered mature art][ influenced by the ]Munich Secession
The Munich Secession was an association of visual artists who broke away from the mainstream Munich Artists' Association in 1892, to promote and defend their art in the face of what they considered official paternalism and its conservative polic ...
.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 27.] The largest and most complex of these, ''The Village Choir'', has been irreversibly damaged by a botched restoration. Photographs and memoirs testify to the existence of his other works, now lost or hidden in private collections.[
Lack of hard evidence prompted conflicts among historians and critics, further aggravated by the politics of the former ]Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...
and its successor states.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 22.] Baranovsky and Khlebnikova noted that by the end of the twentieth century, Ažbe the creator has become a myth, just like Ažbe the person became a legend after his death.[
Frantz Stele (1962) and Peg Weiss (1979) have extensively studied Ažbe's relationships with the emerging avantgarde art and mature ]impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
, and considered Ažbe to be a forerunner of modernist art, a link between Cézanne and Kandinsky.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, pp. 54-56.] Both studies, in particular Weiss', were rejected by Tomaž Brejc who reasoned that any parallels between Ažbe and Cézanne are moot because Ažbe never mastered Cézanne's technique and there is no evidence that he ever attempted it.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 58.]
Ažbe as a teacher
Supporters (Igor Grabar) and opponents (Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky ( lt, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, August 14, 1875, Novgorod – November 20, 1957, New York City) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay ...
) of Ažbe training system agree that it relied, at least in the beginners' classes, on two paramount ideas: the ''Main Line'' and the ''Ball Principle'' (German: ''Kugelprinzip''). Ažbe discouraged beginners from focusing on minor details, instead of forcing them to build the image around one bold "Main Line". He enforced drawing in black charcoal that enabled quick and radical corrections of the students' work.[ Dobuzhinsky admitted that these intrusions into his early work were an eye-opener, "an excellent tool against dilettante, myopic copying of reality..." although for many students it spelled their end as painters: overwhelmed by the "Main Line", they did not dare to step over it and "beef it up" with relevant details.][Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 47.]
The ''Ball Principle'', in its most practical application, portrait, stipulated that a human head is simply a sphere; reproducing lighting of a human head follows the same rules as reproducing a plaster ball.[ Facial features in this system are merely protrusions and cavities of the ball's surface.][ Once the student mastered these basics, Ažbe carefully led him to a different interpretation, that of a head as a ]polyhedron
In geometry, a polyhedron (plural polyhedra or polyhedrons; ) is a three-dimensional shape with flat polygonal faces, straight edges and sharp corners or vertices.
A convex polyhedron is the convex hull of finitely many points, not all on th ...
composed of flat surfaces and sharp ridges – in Dobuzhinsky's opinion, a precursor to cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
.[
Ažbe, himself a master of human anatomy, enforced rigorous training in this subject, from nude ]figure drawing
A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...
to attending autopsies
An autopsy (post-mortem examination, obduction, necropsy, or autopsia cadaverum) is a surgical procedure that consists of a thorough examination of a corpse by dissection to determine the cause, mode, and manner of death or to evaluate any d ...
.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 46.] Igor Grabar, who approved this approach, recalled that in the process he memorized all human muscles and bones by heart to the point where he easily reproduced them in plaster with closed eyes.[ ]Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
, on the contrary, dreaded figure drawing
A figure drawing is a drawing of the human form in any of its various shapes and postures using any of the drawing media. The term can also refer to the act of producing such a drawing. The degree of representation may range from highly detailed, ...
sessions: "I quickly encountered a constraint upon my freedom that turned me into a slave, even only temporarily in a new guise – studying from a model.
Two or three models 'sat for heads' or 'posed nude'. Students of both sexes and from various countries thronged around these smelly, apathetic, expressionless, characterless natural phenomena who were paid fifty to seventy pfennig
The 'pfennig' (; . 'pfennigs' or ; symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former German coin or note, which was the official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, i ...
an hour...
the people who were of no concern to them... they spent not one second thinking about art."
Kandinsky, in his mature years, stayed aside from portraiture or nude figures, and his few rare examples were "featureless, weightless and transparent, a mere cipher without substance" – an opposite of Ažbe's own intentions. Yet, Kandinsky also appreciated Ažbe's view that no theory and no set of rules should subdue the artist's will, and quoted Ažbe: "You must know your own anatomy but in front of an easel
An easel is an upright support used for displaying and/or fixing something resting upon it, at an angle of about 20° to the vertical. In particular, easels are traditionally used by painters to support a painting while they work on it, normally ...
you must forget it".
Painting in colour was a distant target that required prerequisite mastery of line, shape and anatomy. All memoirists noted Ažbe's aversion to mixing paints on a palette; instead, he recommended painting with raw paints and wide brushes.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 48.] A wide brush covered with layers of different paints could, according to Ažbe, paint a human forehead in a single powerful stroke, a skill that required years of rigorous, sometimes exhausting, training.[ Ažbe frequently compared a proper oil painting to a ]diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
: raw paints must retain their independence, like the facets of a gem.[ Ažbe himself adopted this style, later called "]crystallization
Crystallization is the process by which solid forms, where the atoms or molecules are highly organized into a structure known as a crystal. Some ways by which crystals form are precipitating from a solution, freezing, or more rarely deposi ...
of colour", only in the middle of the 1890s.[Baranovsky and Khlebnikova, p. 49.] While Igor Grabar praised this style and elevated it to a level of a whole system developing in parallel to impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
, Dobuzhinsky (who never mastered the power stroke) called it "an artful magicians' trick... colourful but greasy painting devoid of its essence, the 'tone'."
Notable alumni
In chronological order, by year of admission:[Years as in Baranovsky and Khlebnikova pp. 91-206.]
* Rihard Jakopič
Rihard Jakopič (12 April 1869 – 21 April 1943) was a Slovene painter. He was the leading Slovene Impressionist painter, patron of arts and theoretician. Together with Matej Sternen, Matija Jama and Ivan Grohar, he is considered the pionee ...
(1892–)
* Ludvík Kuba
Ludvík Kuba (April 16, 1863 in Poděbrady, Bohemia – November 30, 1956 in Prague) was a Czech landscape painter, musician, writer, professor in the Academy of Fine Arts Prague, Academy of Fine Arts. He was a representative of the Late-Impre ...
(1895–1904)
* Ivan Grohar
Ivan Grohar (15 June 1867 – 19 April 1911) was a Slovene Impressionist painter. Together with Rihard Jakopič, Matej Sternen, and Matija Jama, he is considered one of the leading figures of Slovene impressionism in the fin de siecle ...
(1896–)
* Igor Grabar
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (russian: И́горь Эммануи́лович Граба́рь, 25 March 1871 in Budapest – 16 May 1960 in Moscow) was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, des ...
(1896–1901)
* Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (russian: Алексе́й Гео́ргиевич Явле́нский, translit=Alekséy Geórgiyevich Yavlénskiy) (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expressioni ...
(1896–1905)
* Dmitry Kardovsky
Dmitry Nicolajevich Kardovsky (Russian: Дмитрий Николаевич Кардовский; 5 September 1866 – 9 February 1943) was a Russian artist, illustrator and stage designer.
Biography
He was born near Pereslavl-Zalessky in the ...
(1896–1900)
* Marianne von Werefkin
Marianne von Werefkin, born Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina ( rus, Мариа́нна Влади́мировна Верёвкина, Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina, mərʲɪˈanːə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə vʲɪˈrʲɵfkʲɪnə; – 6 Febr ...
(1896–1905)
* Matija Jama
Matija Jama (4 January 1872 – 6 April 1947) was a Slovene painter. Together with Rihard Jakopič, Ivan Grohar and Matej Sternen, he is considered among the best representatives of Impressionism in the Slovene Lands.
Life
Jama was born in L ...
(1897–)
* Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...
(1897–1899)
* Yelena Makovskaya (1897–1899)
* Pavel Shmarov (1897–1898)
* Matej Sternen
Matej Sternen (20 September 1870 – 28 June 1949) was a leading Slovene Impressionist painter.
Sternen was born in Verd, now part of the Carniolan municipality of Vrhnika, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and baptized ''Matthæus Str ...
(1897–1905)
* Nadežda Petrović
Nadežda Petrović ( sr-Cyrl, Надежда Петровић; 11/12 October 1873 – 3 April 1915) was a Serbian painter and one of the women war photography pioneers in the region. Considered Serbia's most famous expressionist and fauvist, ...
(1898–1901)
* Beta Vukanović
Beta Vukanović (18 April 1872 – 31 October 1972), also known as Babette Bachmayer, was a Serbian painter and centenarian.
Biography
Born in Bamberg, Upper Franconia
Upper Franconia (german: Oberfranken) is a ''Regierungsbezirk'' (adminis ...
(1872-1972)
* Ljubomir Ivanović
Ljubomir "Ljuba" Ivanović (Belgrade, Kingdom of Serbia. 24 February 1882 – Belgrade, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 23 November 1945) was a Serbian painter, printmaker and draughtsman. He is considered one of the first Serbian impressionists, although ...
(1882-1945)
* Borivoje Stevanović (1878-1976)
* Kosta Miličević
Kosta Miličević ( sr-Cyrl, Коста Миличевић; 3 June 1877 – 12 February 1920) was a Serbian impressionist painter, known mostly for his landscapes.
Biography
Kosta Miličević was born to a clerical family, with a history of se ...
(1877-1920)
* Milan Milovanović (1876-1946)
* Ivan Bilibin
Ivan Yakovlevich Bilibin ( rus, Ива́н Я́ковлевич Били́бин, p=ɪˈvan ˈjakəvlʲɪvʲɪt͡ɕ bʲɪˈlʲibʲɪn; – 7 February 1942) was a Russian illustrator and stage designer who took part in the ''Mir iskusstva'', contr ...
(1899)
* Olga Della-Vos-Kardovskaya
Olga Lyudvigovna Della-Vos-Kardovskaya (russian: Ольга Людвиговна Делла-Вос Кардовская) (1875, Chernigov, Russian Empire – 1952, Leningrad, USSR) was a Russian painter and graphic artist. From 1891 until 1894 s ...
(1899–1900)
* Mikhail Shemyakin
Mihail Mikhailovich Chemiakin (or Shemyakin, russian: Михаил Михайлович Шемякин, born 4 May 1943) is a Russian Painting, painter, Scenic design, stage designer, sculptor and publisher, and a controversial representative ...
(1900–1902)
* Mstislav Dobuzhinsky
Mstislav Valerianovich Dobuzhinsky or Dobujinsky ( lt, Mstislavas Dobužinskis, August 14, 1875, Novgorod – November 20, 1957, New York City) was a Russian and Lithuanian artist noted for his cityscapes conveying the explosive growth and decay ...
(1899–1901)
* Oleksandr Murashko
Oleksandr Oleksandrovych Murashko ( uk, Олександр Олександрович Мурашко); also known as Aleksandr Murashko ( – June 14, 1919) was a prominent Ukrainians, Ukrainian Painting, painter.
Life and career
Murashko wa ...
(1901)
* Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin, (; November 5, Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates">O._S._24_October.html" ;"title="Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>O._S._24_October">Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html"_;"title="nowiki/>Old_Styl ...
(1901)
* David Burliuk
David Davidovich Burliuk (Давид Давидович Бурлюк; 21 July 1882 – 15 January 1967) was a Russian-language poet, artist and publicist associated with the Futurist and Neo-Primitivist movements. Burliuk has been described as ...
and Vladimir Burliuk
Wladimir Davydovych Burliuk (russian: Владимир Давидович Бурлюк; – 1917) was a Russian avant-garde artist (Neo-Primitivist and Cubo-Futurist) and book illustrator. He died at the age of 32 in 1917 in World War I.
Biograp ...
(1903)
* Karl Friedrich Lippmann
Karl Friedrich Lippmann (also "Carl Fr. Lippmann" and "FK Lippmann"; 27 October 1883, in Offenbach am Main – 30 May 1957) was a German painter of the New Objectivity, known for landscapes and portraits.
Life
Karl Friedrich Lippmann was o ...
(1903–06)
* Eugeniusz Żak (1903–1904)
* Hakob Kojoyan
Hakob Kojoyan ( hy, Հակոբ Կոջոյան; December 13, 1883 – April 24, 1959) was an Armenian artist.
He mostly worked in the genres of painting and applied art. Hakob Kojoyan assisted Armenian architect Alexander Tamanian in creating the ...
(1903–1905)
* Leonhard Frank
Leonhard Frank (4 September 1882 in Würzburg – 18 August 1961 in Munich) was a German expressionist writer. He studied painting and graphic art in Munich, and gained acclaim with his first novel ''The Robber Band'' (1914, tr. 1928). When a Ber ...
(1904)
* Oskar Herman
Oskar Herman (1886–1974) was a Croatian-Jewish painter. He was one of the group of Croatian artists known as the Munich Circle, who had a strong influence on modern art in Croatia.
Biography
Herman was born on 17 March 1886 in Zagreb to Croa ...
(1904)
* Josip Račić
Josip Račić (22 March 1885 – 19 June 1908) was a Croatian painter in the early 20th century. Although he died very young (he was only 23), and his work was mostly created during his student years, he is one of the best known modern Croatian p ...
(1904)
* Konstantin Dydyshko (1905)
* Abraham Manevich (1905)
After the death of Anton Ažbe the school trained a group of Estonian painters: Johannes Greenberg, Anton Starkopf, and Ado Vabbe.
References
Sources
* Victor Baranovsky, Irina Khlebnikova (2001) (in Russian). ''Anton Ažbe i hudozhniki Rossii'' (Антон Ажбе и художники России). Moscow State University
M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...
. .
* Shulamith Behr (2000). ''Veiling Venus: gender and painterly abstractions in early German modernism'', in: Katie Scott, Caroline Arscott (editors) (2000).
Manifestations of Venus: art and sexuality
'. Manchester University Press. , .
* Konrad Boehmer (1997).
Schönberg and Kandinsky: an historic encounter
'. Taylor & Francos. , .
* Igor Grabar
Igor Emmanuilovich Grabar (russian: И́горь Эммануи́лович Граба́рь, 25 March 1871 in Budapest – 16 May 1960 in Moscow) was a Russian post-impressionist painter, publisher, restorer and historian of art. Grabar, des ...
.
Avtomonografia
' (Автомонография) (in Russian). 2001 edition: Respublika, Moscow. .
* Dirk Heisserer (2008) (in German).
Wo die Geister wandern: Literarische Spaziergänge durch Schwabing
'. C.H.Beck. , .
* Peter Howard Selz (1974).
German expressionist painting
'. University of California Press. , .
Further reading
* Katarina Ambrožič (1988) (in German). ''Wege zur Moderne und die Ažbe-Schule in München''. Recklinghausen: Bongers. .
* Bernd Fäthke (1988) (in German). ''Im Vorfeld des Expressionismus. Anton Azbe und die Malerei in München und Paris''. Wiesbaden: Verlag des Institutes für Bildende Kunst. .
* Marijan Tršar (1991) (in Slovene). ''Anton Ažbe''. Ljubljana: Založba Park.
* Peg Weiss (1979). ''Kandinsky in Munich: the formative Jugendstil years''. Princeton University Press. , (1985 edition: , ).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Azbe, Anton
1862 births
1905 deaths
Slovenian realist painters
Deaths from cancer in Germany
Deaths from esophageal cancer
People from the Municipality of Gorenja Vas-Poljane
Artists from Munich
Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni
Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni
19th-century Slovenian painters
Slovenian male painters
Slovenian expatriates in Austria
Slovenian expatriates in Germany
19th-century Slovenian male artists
20th-century Slovenian male artists