Käthe Frida Rosa Loewenthal (27 March 1878, in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
– 26 April 1942, in
Izbica) was a German
Modernist landscape painter of Jewish ancestry. She was murdered in the
Shoah
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ar ...
.
The Painter Susanne Ritscher was her sister.
Biography
Her father
Wilhelm Loewenthal
Wolff Wilhelm Lowenthal ( – ) was a Silesia, silesian-born, naturalized French people, French Doctor of Medicine.
Born in Rybnik, Province of Silesia, now Poland after graduating from the University of Berlin, Lowenthal (or Löwenthal, with th ...
was an
ophthalmologist
Ophthalmology ( ) is a surgery, surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the diagnosis and treatment of eye disorders.
An ophthalmologist is a physician who undergoes subspecialty training in medical and surgical eye care. Followin ...
and
hygienist
Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...
. They moved frequently, living in Geneva,
Lausanne
, neighboring_municipalities= Bottens, Bretigny-sur-Morrens, Chavannes-près-Renens, Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne, Crissier, Cugy, Écublens, Épalinges, Évian-les-Bains (FR-74), Froideville, Jouxtens-Mézery, Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Lugrin (FR-74), ...
, Paris and Berlin, as her father did work at various universities. The year 1890 found them in
Bern
german: Berner(in)french: Bernois(e) it, bernese
, neighboring_municipalities = Bremgarten bei Bern, Frauenkappelen, Ittigen, Kirchlindach, Köniz, Mühleberg, Muri bei Bern, Neuenegg, Ostermundigen, Wohlen bei Bern, Zollikofen
, website ...
, where she made friends with the family of a local
pastor
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
and converted to Protestantism.
[Time Line](_blank)
@ Art and Memory.
She also made the acquaintance of the Swiss
Symbolist
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
painter,
Ferdinand Hodler
Ferdinand Hodler (March 14, 1853 – May 19, 1918) was one of the best-known Swiss painters of the nineteenth century.
His early works were portraits, landscapes, and genre paintings in a realistic style. Later, he adopted a personal form of ...
, and developed an interest in art. After finishing her secondary education, she studied with him from 1895 to 1897.
[Brief biography](_blank)
@ Galerie Der Panther. While visiting Paris, she met the German painter,
Leo von König
Leo Freiherr von König (1871-1944) was a German painter and member of the Berlin Secession.
Biography
Leo was the eldest son of Götz von König, a military officer who later became a General of the Cavalry, and his wife Baroness Hertha von Cr ...
. She returned to Berlin with him and took lessons at his private school. She then studied at the art school founded by
Wilhelm Feldmann in
Mölln.
From 1904 to 1905, she worked as a freelance artist in Munich and took trips to the
Bernese Highlands, which became a popular motif in her early paintings.
In 1909, she moved to
Stuttgart
Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...
to join her friend, the painter
Erna Raabe
Erna Raabe, Dame von Holzhausen (1882-1938) was a German artist; known for portraits and animal paintings.
Biography
She studied at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, from 1900 to 1902. Her primary instructor there was Wilhelm Trübner. Aft ...
, Dame von Holzhausen.
There, she studied at the
State Academy of Fine Arts in the "Damenmalklasse" (Women's Class), taught by
Adolf Hölzel
Adolf Richard Hölzel (13 May 1853 – 17 October 1934) was a German painter. He began as a Realist, but later became an early promoter of various Modern styles, including Abstractionism.
Biography
Hölzel was born in Olmütz. His father was ...
, and took her academic degree in 1914.
In 1912 her sister, Susanne, had bought an old fisherman's house on
Hiddensee. Käthe visited there regularly until 1934; becoming a member of the "", which included
Elisabeth Andrae, ,
Clara Arnheim and
Elisabeth Büchsel. She also exhibited at the
Blaue Scheune
The ''Blaue Scheune'' ('Blue Barn') in the village of Vitte on the German Baltic Sea island of Hiddensee was originally a Low German hall house from the early 19th century. It housed not only the barn, but also the bakery and the living area for ...
, an art venue established by the painter and activist,
Henni Lehmann
Henriette Lehmann, née Straßmann, known as Henni (10 October 1862, Berlin – 18 February 1937, Berlin) was a politically and socially active German painter and writer of Jewish ancestry.
Biography
Her father, Wolfgang Straßmann, was a do ...
.
In 1934, she was served with a "Malverbot" (painting forbidden), and was unable to exhibit or accept commissions.
Her studio was closed and she was expelled from all the organizations she belonged to. Until 1941, she was still able to make occasional trips to Switzerland and paint in the Highlands. As the harassment became progressively worse, she secretly received support from friends in the art community and her former maid, Marie, who would later hide and save over 200 of her pastels and watercolors.
In 1941, she was removed from her apartment and placed in a "" (home for Jews). The following year, she was taken to a processing center in
Lauterstein, then transported to the Izbica Ghetto, where she was murdered.
She is commemorated by
stolpersteine in Hiddensee and Stuttgart. In 1993, a retrospective was held at (The Hidden Museum), an exhibition venue devoted to the work of female artists, sculptors, photographers and architects.
References
Further reading
* Ruth Negendanck: ''Hiddensee. Die besondere Insel für Künstler.'' Atelier im Bauernhaus, Fischerhude 2005,
* Grete Grewolls: "Loewenthal, Käthe." In: ''Wer war wer in Mecklenburg und Vorpommern. Das Personenlexikon.'' Hinstorff, Rostock 2011,
* Angela Rapp: ''Der Hiddensoer Künstlerinnenbund – Malweiber sind wir nicht.'' Berlin 2012, .
External links
Käthe Loewenthal official website
Käthe Loewenthal und Ihre Schwestern@ the Museums- und Kunstverein Osnabrück
@ Zeichnung der Erinerrung.
Käthe Loewenthal@ Der Hiddensoer Künstlerinnenbund
*
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Loewenthal, Kathe
1878 births
1942 deaths
20th-century German painters
German landscape painters
German women painters
Jewish women painters
Jewish painters
German watercolourists
Artists from Berlin
People who died in Izbica Ghetto
German Jews who died in the Holocaust
20th-century German women artists
Women watercolorists