Selma Des Coudres (born Selma Plawneek ( lv, Zelma Pļavniece); 2 January 1883,

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

— 4 March 1956,

Fürstenfeldbruck Fürstenfeldbruck () is a town in Bavaria, Germany, located 32 kilometres west of Munich. It is the capital of the district of Fürstenfeldbruck. it has a population of 35,494. Since the 1930s, Fürstenfeldbruck has had an air force base. Th ...

) was a Latvian-born German painter. Her style mixes elements of

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and Japonism.

Biography

Her father was a wood and lumber wholesaler. He died in 1891, shortly after a disastrous fire destroyed all his possessions. Her mother had received drawing lessons as a girl, and encouraged Selma in her plans to become an artist.Eva von Seckendorff: "Selma Des Coudres, geb. Plawneek – Eine Malerin zwischen Riga und Fürstenfeldbruck". In: Angelika Mundorff, Eva von Seckendorff (Eds.): ''Selma und Adolf Des Coudres. Ein ungleiches Künstlerpaar.'' Exhibition catalog, Museum Fürstenfeldbruck, 2014 . SDC Isar

She enrolled in the private painting school operated by the Baltic German painter, Elise Jung-Stilling. In 1903, the Imperial Academy of Arts awarded her a diploma that enabled her to become a teacher in a middle school for girls. While teaching, she also took private lessons from Janis Rozentāls and studied landscape painting with Vilhelms Purvītis. Her first work was as an illustrator; providing drawings in the Art Nouveau style for ''Kiefern im Schnee'' (Pines in the Snow), a collection of poetry and fairy tales. From 1908 to 1912, she regularly provided illustrations for the ''Jahrbuch für bildende Kunst in den Ostseeprovinzen''. She also participated in several exhibits at the Rigaer Kunstverein and the new Latvian National Museum of Art. The museum's Director, Wilhelm Neumann, purchased several of her linocuts for its collection.''Rigaische Zeitung'' #65, 20 March 1909 In 1909, she received a scholarship from the City of Riga: established by

Georg Wilhelm Timm Georg Wilhelm Timm, also known as Vasily Fyodorovich Timm (Russian: Василий Фёдорович Тимм; 21 June 1820, in Riga – 19 April 1895, in Berlin) was a Baltic-German painter, lithographer and ceramic designer, known for his genr ...

to help young artists. The money enabled her to study in Munich with Max Doerner and in

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

with Adolf Hölzel. In 1910, she went to

Chiemsee Chiemsee () is a freshwater lake in Bavaria, Germany, near Rosenheim. It is often called "the Bavarian Sea". The rivers Tiroler Achen and Prien flow into the lake from the south, and the river Alz flows out towards the north. The Alz flows in ...

for lessons with

Julius Exter Julius Leopold Bernhard Exter (20 September 1863, Ludwigshafen - 16 October 1939, Übersee) was a German painter and sculptor. His work consists mostly of landscapes and portraits. Biography He was born to a family of merchants. His brother ...

.Letter: Selma Des Coudres to Paul Campe, 5 January 1951. Herder-Institut Marburg, Dokumentensammlung DSHI 100 Campe 18a Bl. 291 Back in Munich, she made lifelong friends with Joachim Ringelnatz, who called her a "very gifted, poor painter". His autobiography was dedicated to her. Until 1914, she moved between Riga and Munich. During the war, she travelled extensively, giving exhibitions. Finally, in 1919, she decided to settle in Fürstenfeldbruck, which had been an artists' colony since 1900. It was there she met the painter,

Adolf Des Coudres Adolf Des Coudres (2 June 1862, Karlsruhe - 21 September 1924, Fürstenfeldbruck) was a German landscape painter. Biography The Des Coudres family originated in Switzerland. His father was Ludwig des Coudres, a painter and Professor at the Ac ...

, and they were married in 1921. They made a very notable pair, as she was twenty years younger than him and much taller. The marriage was short, however, as he died late in 1924. Adolf Des Coudres schlafend

Not long after his death, she and other local artists created the Kunstverein Fürstenfeldbruck. For a time, she served on the Board of Directors. Having lost most of her wealth due to the raging hyperinflation, she settled in a small cottage nearby. At that time, she began to concentrate on portraits and floral

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

s; catering to provincial tastes in order to make a living. She died in 1956 and is buried next to her husband at the old cemetery in Emmering, Fürstenfeldbruck, Emmering.

References

External links

Works, photographs and biography
@ the Des Coudres website. {{DEFAULTSORT:Des Coudres, Selma 1883 births 1956 deaths 20th-century German painters German women painters German landscape painters German Expressionist painters Latvian emigrants to Germany Artists from Riga 20th-century German women artists 20th-century women painters

Biography

References

Further reading

External links