Hans Unger
Encyclopedia
Hans Unger was a German painter
who was, during his lifetime, a highly respected Art Nouveau
artist. His popularity did not survive the change in the artistic climate in Germany after World War I, however, and after his death he was soon forgotten. However, in the 1980s interest in his work revived, and a grand retrospective exhibition in 1997 in the City Museum in Freital
, Germany, duly restored his reputation as one of the masters of the Dresden
art scene around 1910.
'. In fact, it was always the same woman being portrayed: his wife in real life, his muse
. Later, his daughter Maja would share her mothers' privileged position. The background to his 'Arcadian woman' would quite often be a pastoral landscape with high cypresses, a garden or a seaside scene.
In his work he was influenced by some important 19th century- and contemporary artists, among whom were: Puvis de Chavannes ("beauty as religion"), Gustave Moreau
, Josephin Péladan
(the androgyne type), Fernand Khnopff
(sphinx-like women, although Unger omitted the lascivious eroticism of Khnopff), William Strang
(a British engraver whom Unger met in 1895 in Dresden, and later visited in London) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
. Other important influences were Edward Burne-Jones
, Arnold Böcklin
(especially his landscapes) and Max Klinger
.
, in the Lausitz in the southeast corner of Germany near Poland and the Czech Republic. His father quickly recognized his son's artistic talent, but since he did not think painting would be a thriving occupation for young Hans, he sent him to trade school. This was not a success and quite soon Unger became a house painter (Anstreicher). In 1887 he took up a training position as decoration painter in his home-town. From 1888 to 1893 he was a student in the Painting Class (Malsaal) in the Royal Dresden Court Theatre.
From 1893 to 1895 he studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Friedrich Preller der Jüngere, Hermann Prell
and Richard Müller. Unger can be seen as a representative of the Dresdener Jugendstil movement, among whose members were also Sascha Schneider
, Selmar Werner and Oskar Zwintscher. In 1894 he spent summer on the island Bornholm
where he made a series of watercolours. In 1896 he designed a poster
(Plakat) for the Dresden-based organ manufacturing company Estey (Estey Organ
), which made him internationally famous and launched his career. In all, he published about a dozen posters that feature for the first time his trademark of the beautiful but dreamlike and almost sleepwalking woman, a motive that was so prominent in much Art Nouveau painting.
Dresden. From October 1897 to March 1898 he studied at the Académie Julian
in Paris where his teachers were Fleury and Lefebvre. Another boost to this career was the commission to design the scenic curtain for the newly built Dresdener Centraltheater, in 1899. Unfortunately the building was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden by the Allied forces in February 1945.
In 1899 he also took part in the German Art Exhibition (Deutsche Kunstausstellung) in Dresden where he had his own room, decorated with lila walls and a black wooden rim. Among the works displayed was a Selbstbildnis im Sweater (Self Portrait in Sweater), and Abschied (Farewell), a landscape.
In 1902 he became a member of the newly established Deutsche Künstlerbund (German Artist's Union) and traveled to the North Sea, the Baltic, Italy and Egypt, where he made lots of watercolours and pastel paintings. Unger was a passionate traveler to the South all his life, and the powerful colours in his work reflect this.
In 1905 Unger designed a mosaic for the tower of the Ernemann Reisekamera
factory in Dresden, portraying a Lichtgöttin (Light Goddess). The tower still exists and is presently at the Schandauerstrasse.
In 1898 and 1910, Unger designed the cover illustration for issues of the magazine Jugend. He also illustrated issues of the magazine Pan
.
In 1912, the newly built City Museum in his hometown Bautzen opened and celebrated Unger by giving him his own room. He was at the apex of his fame and was called Dresden's letzter Malerfürst (The Last Painting Sovereign of Dresden) by the press.
The outbreak of World War I in November 1914 forced many young artists to join the military and fight at the front, but Unger was already so prominent in his profession that he was spared this fate and could continue to devote himself to his art.
In 1917 Unger participated in the exhibition of the Dresdner Kunstgenossenschaft (Dresden Artists Society). He designed the catalogue's cover image and showed 6 paintings, amongst which Salome
and Liegende Mädchen (Girls Lying), and 6 drawings. In 1918 the Dresdner Kunst Ausstellung (Dresden Art Exhibition) features Unger with another 11 paintings and 10 drawings. attesting to his popularity and renown in the artistic community. His poster for the concerts of his friend, the composer and director Jean-Louis Nicodé, won him a prize in England for 'best German poster'.
and copying reality as they had already done in the years prior to World War I. Unger's world of idealized women in soothing landscapes had been overhauled by the Zeitgeist and his work was being relegated to the background.
Nonetheless, Unger still was one of the most wealthy artists in Dresden, and he continued to travel to Italy, Dalmatia, Spain, Portugal and Africa. Unger's visits to Egypt resulted in an exhibition in the Galerie Baumbach in Dresden in 1927 and in King Fuad I
of Egypt being one of his mecenasses.
In 1933 the Sächsischer Kunstverein (Art Association of Saxony) organized an exhibition on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The arts journalist Felix Zimmermann wrote an honorary article on Unger in the Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten of August 25, 1932.
Meanwhile, his health deteriorated. What later turned out to be a kidney disease was treated too late and Hans Unger died in his home in Loschwitz
, a suburb of Dresden, on August 9, 1936. He was buried in the Loschwitz
cemetery, where his grave still exists. History had certainly caught up with him. Adolf Hitler
was already in power for more than three years, the economy was in the worst state of the entire 20th century and the days of Art Nouveau
and fin de siècle
were definitively over.
However, the resurging interest in Jugendstil art in the 1960s brought Unger's work back to the attention of the art connoisseurs. And in 1987 the City Museum in Bautzen
organized an exhibition to commemorate the 125th anniversary of his birth.
In 1902, Unger designed his own villa
in Loschwitz
. His prominence as a daring young artist and his popularity among the Dresden upper class as a portraitist had made him a wealthy man. Unger also designed the entire interior decoration himself. This however was demolished during a renovation in the early 1970s. The villa, on the Kügelgenstrasse no. 6, still exists and offers a view on the river Elbe and, further away, on the Dresden city centre.
In 1903, his only child, daughter Maja, was born, who had clearly inherited her mother's looks. Her godfather
was Sascha Schneider
, a lifelong friend of Unger. After her death in 1973, Unger's estate was sold and scattered.
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
who was, during his lifetime, a highly respected Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
artist. His popularity did not survive the change in the artistic climate in Germany after World War I, however, and after his death he was soon forgotten. However, in the 1980s interest in his work revived, and a grand retrospective exhibition in 1997 in the City Museum in Freital
Freital
Freital is the biggest town in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the small river Weißeritz, 8 km southwest of Dresden.- Geography :...
, Germany, duly restored his reputation as one of the masters of the Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
art scene around 1910.
Trademark and artistic influences
Unger was a portraitist and a landscape painter but his reputation stems from his paintings, most of them nearly life-size, of 'beautiful women dreaming of Arcadia (utopia)Arcadia (utopia)
Arcadia refers to a vision of pastoralism and harmony with nature. The term is derived from the Greek province of the same name which dates to antiquity; the province's mountainous topography and sparse population of pastoralists later caused the word Arcadia to develop into a poetic byword for an...
'. In fact, it was always the same woman being portrayed: his wife in real life, his muse
Muse
The Muses in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature, are the goddesses who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths...
. Later, his daughter Maja would share her mothers' privileged position. The background to his 'Arcadian woman' would quite often be a pastoral landscape with high cypresses, a garden or a seaside scene.
In his work he was influenced by some important 19th century- and contemporary artists, among whom were: Puvis de Chavannes ("beauty as religion"), Gustave Moreau
Gustave Moreau
Gustave Moreau was a French Symbolist painter whose main emphasis was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures. As a painter of literary ideas, Moreau appealed to the imaginations of some Symbolist writers and artists.- Biography :Moreau was born in Paris. His father, Louis Jean Marie...
, Josephin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism.-Biography:...
(the androgyne type), Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Khnopff
Fernand Edmond Jean Marie Khnopff as a Belgian symbolist painter.- Youth and Training :...
(sphinx-like women, although Unger omitted the lascivious eroticism of Khnopff), William Strang
William Strang
William Strang was a renowned Scottish painter and engraver.He was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, builder, and educated at the Dumbarton Academy. He worked for fifteen months in the counting-house of a firm of shipbuilders before going to London in 1875 when he was sixteen...
(a British engraver whom Unger met in 1895 in Dresden, and later visited in London) and Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement,...
. Other important influences were Edward Burne-Jones
Edward Burne-Jones
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...
, Arnold Böcklin
Arnold Böcklin
Arnold Böcklin was a Swiss symbolist painter.-Life and art:He was born at Basel. His father, Christian Frederick Böcklin , was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk trade. His mother, Ursula Lippe, was a native of the same city...
(especially his landscapes) and Max Klinger
Max Klinger
Max Klinger was a German Symbolist painter, sculptor, printmaker, and writer.Klinger was born in Leipzig and studied in Karlsruhe. An admirer of the etchings of Menzel and Goya, he shortly became a skilled and imaginative engraver in his own right. He began creating sculptures in the early 1880s...
.
Most important works (and first exhibition)
- Estey Orgeln (poster, 1896)
- Die Muse (The Muse), International Art Exhibition Dresden, 1897
- Das Welken, (The Withering), 1902
- Mutter und Kind (Mother and Child), King Albert Museum, Chemnitz, 1912
- Venezianerin (Viennese), Galerie Arnold, Dresden, 1916
Early life
Hans Unger was born in a lower middle-class family in BautzenBautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
, in the Lausitz in the southeast corner of Germany near Poland and the Czech Republic. His father quickly recognized his son's artistic talent, but since he did not think painting would be a thriving occupation for young Hans, he sent him to trade school. This was not a success and quite soon Unger became a house painter (Anstreicher). In 1887 he took up a training position as decoration painter in his home-town. From 1888 to 1893 he was a student in the Painting Class (Malsaal) in the Royal Dresden Court Theatre.
From 1893 to 1895 he studied at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where his teachers were Friedrich Preller der Jüngere, Hermann Prell
Hermann Prell
Hermann Prell was a German historical painter and sculptor. He was born at Leipzig and studied under Grosse in Dresden and Gussow in Berlin, then went to Italy to study fresco painting, in which branch he produced his most important works...
and Richard Müller. Unger can be seen as a representative of the Dresdener Jugendstil movement, among whose members were also Sascha Schneider
Sascha Schneider
Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider, commonly known as Sascha Schneider , was a German painter and sculptor.-Biography :...
, Selmar Werner and Oskar Zwintscher. In 1894 he spent summer on the island Bornholm
Bornholm
Bornholm is a Danish island in the Baltic Sea located to the east of the rest of Denmark, the south of Sweden, and the north of Poland. The main industries on the island include fishing, arts and crafts like glass making and pottery using locally worked clay, and dairy farming. Tourism is...
where he made a series of watercolours. In 1896 he designed a poster
Poster
A poster is any piece of printed paper designed to be attached to a wall or vertical surface. Typically posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. Posters are designed to be both eye-catching and informative. Posters may be...
(Plakat) for the Dresden-based organ manufacturing company Estey (Estey Organ
Estey Organ
The Estey Organ Company was founded by Jacob Estey when he bought out a Brattleboro, Vermont manufacturing business in 1852. The company went on to become the largest manufacturer of organs in the United States. The original company had been founded in 1846...
), which made him internationally famous and launched his career. In all, he published about a dozen posters that feature for the first time his trademark of the beautiful but dreamlike and almost sleepwalking woman, a motive that was so prominent in much Art Nouveau painting.
Early career
In 1897 his painting Die Muse (The Muse) was immediately bought by the Gemäldegalerie Alte MeisterGemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden features major works of art. It is located in the gallery wing of the Zwinger....
Dresden. From October 1897 to March 1898 he studied at the Académie Julian
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was an art school in Paris, France.Rodolphe Julian established the Académie Julian in 1868 at the Passage des Panoramas, as a private studio school for art students. The Académie Julian not only prepared students to the exams at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts, but offered...
in Paris where his teachers were Fleury and Lefebvre. Another boost to this career was the commission to design the scenic curtain for the newly built Dresdener Centraltheater, in 1899. Unfortunately the building was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden by the Allied forces in February 1945.
In 1899 he also took part in the German Art Exhibition (Deutsche Kunstausstellung) in Dresden where he had his own room, decorated with lila walls and a black wooden rim. Among the works displayed was a Selbstbildnis im Sweater (Self Portrait in Sweater), and Abschied (Farewell), a landscape.
In 1902 he became a member of the newly established Deutsche Künstlerbund (German Artist's Union) and traveled to the North Sea, the Baltic, Italy and Egypt, where he made lots of watercolours and pastel paintings. Unger was a passionate traveler to the South all his life, and the powerful colours in his work reflect this.
In 1905 Unger designed a mosaic for the tower of the Ernemann Reisekamera
Reisekamera
The Reisekamera was a popular wooden bellows view camera of the tailboard design, manufactured in large quantities in specialised cabinetmaker's workshops of the eastern regions of Germany from about 1860, but reaching peak popularity in the decades around 1900...
factory in Dresden, portraying a Lichtgöttin (Light Goddess). The tower still exists and is presently at the Schandauerstrasse.
In 1898 and 1910, Unger designed the cover illustration for issues of the magazine Jugend. He also illustrated issues of the magazine Pan
Pan (magazine)
Pan was an arts and literary magazine, published from 1895 to 1900 in Berlin by Julius Otto Bierbaum and Julius Meier-Graefe. The magazine was revived by Paul Cassirer in 1910, published by his Pan-Presse....
.
The apex
Around 1910, Unger's style changed notably. His stroke becomes more bold, his colours lose their intensity and his choice of motive becomes increasingly monotonic. The dreamlike female figure that around the turn of the century was captivating and fresh became a cliché. Her face had turned harsh and without expression. However, in his portraits and landscapes Unger remained as powerful as he had ever been.In 1912, the newly built City Museum in his hometown Bautzen opened and celebrated Unger by giving him his own room. He was at the apex of his fame and was called Dresden's letzter Malerfürst (The Last Painting Sovereign of Dresden) by the press.
The outbreak of World War I in November 1914 forced many young artists to join the military and fight at the front, but Unger was already so prominent in his profession that he was spared this fate and could continue to devote himself to his art.
In 1917 Unger participated in the exhibition of the Dresdner Kunstgenossenschaft (Dresden Artists Society). He designed the catalogue's cover image and showed 6 paintings, amongst which Salome
Salome
Salome , the Daughter of Herodias , is known from the New Testament...
and Liegende Mädchen (Girls Lying), and 6 drawings. In 1918 the Dresdner Kunst Ausstellung (Dresden Art Exhibition) features Unger with another 11 paintings and 10 drawings. attesting to his popularity and renown in the artistic community. His poster for the concerts of his friend, the composer and director Jean-Louis Nicodé, won him a prize in England for 'best German poster'.
A lost world
In 1918, Germany lost the war, and it lost also the monarchy. The young artists, returning from the front, were disillusioned and wanted only one thing and that was Change, moving even further away from impressionismImpressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
and copying reality as they had already done in the years prior to World War I. Unger's world of idealized women in soothing landscapes had been overhauled by the Zeitgeist and his work was being relegated to the background.
Nonetheless, Unger still was one of the most wealthy artists in Dresden, and he continued to travel to Italy, Dalmatia, Spain, Portugal and Africa. Unger's visits to Egypt resulted in an exhibition in the Galerie Baumbach in Dresden in 1927 and in King Fuad I
Fuad I of Egypt
Fuad I was the Sultan and later King of Egypt and Sudan, Sovereign of Nubia, Kordofan, and Darfur. The ninth ruler of Egypt and Sudan from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty, he became Sultan of Egypt and Sudan in 1917, succeeding his elder brother Sultan Hussein Kamel...
of Egypt being one of his mecenasses.
In 1933 the Sächsischer Kunstverein (Art Association of Saxony) organized an exhibition on the occasion of his 60th birthday. The arts journalist Felix Zimmermann wrote an honorary article on Unger in the Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten of August 25, 1932.
Meanwhile, his health deteriorated. What later turned out to be a kidney disease was treated too late and Hans Unger died in his home in Loschwitz
Loschwitz
Loschwitz is a borough of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters :Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes north of the Elbe river...
, a suburb of Dresden, on August 9, 1936. He was buried in the Loschwitz
Loschwitz
Loschwitz is a borough of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters :Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes north of the Elbe river...
cemetery, where his grave still exists. History had certainly caught up with him. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
was already in power for more than three years, the economy was in the worst state of the entire 20th century and the days of Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
and fin de siècle
Fin de siècle
Fin de siècle is French for "end of the century". The term sometimes encompasses both the closing and onset of an era, as it was felt to be a period of degeneration, but at the same time a period of hope for a new beginning...
were definitively over.
However, the resurging interest in Jugendstil art in the 1960s brought Unger's work back to the attention of the art connoisseurs. And in 1987 the City Museum in Bautzen
Bautzen
Bautzen is a hill-top town in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative centre of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2008, its population is 41,161...
organized an exhibition to commemorate the 125th anniversary of his birth.
Personal life
Unger married his wife Marie Antonia in 1899. She was to become his muse, his model and the main motive of his works. She is said to have been quite beautiful and the center of attention of the many friends in the artistic circles in Dresden, especially musicians and writers, that Unger invited to his home.In 1902, Unger designed his own villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
in Loschwitz
Loschwitz
Loschwitz is a borough of Dresden, Germany, incorporated in 1921. It consists of ten quarters :Loschwitz is a villa quarter located at the slopes north of the Elbe river...
. His prominence as a daring young artist and his popularity among the Dresden upper class as a portraitist had made him a wealthy man. Unger also designed the entire interior decoration himself. This however was demolished during a renovation in the early 1970s. The villa, on the Kügelgenstrasse no. 6, still exists and offers a view on the river Elbe and, further away, on the Dresden city centre.
In 1903, his only child, daughter Maja, was born, who had clearly inherited her mother's looks. Her godfather
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
was Sascha Schneider
Sascha Schneider
Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider, commonly known as Sascha Schneider , was a German painter and sculptor.-Biography :...
, a lifelong friend of Unger. After her death in 1973, Unger's estate was sold and scattered.