Karl Ernst Osthaus was an important German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 patron of avant-garde

Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....

 art and architecture.

In 1902, Osthaus founded the Folkwang Museum in Hagen

Hagen

Hagen is the 39th-largest city in Germany, located in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is located on the eastern edge of the Ruhr area, 15 km south of Dortmund, where the rivers Lenne, Volme and Ennepe meet the river Ruhr...

, Germany. After his death, the city of Hagen was unable to purchase the museum collection and in 1922 Hagen was outbid by the neighboring city of Essen

Essen

- Origin of the name :In German-speaking countries, the name of the city Essen often causes confusion as to its origins, because it is commonly known as the German infinitive of the verb for the act of eating, and/or the German noun for food. Although scholars still dispute the interpretation of...

 which now houses the Folkwang Collection. A separate museum survives in Hagen, the Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum

Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum

The Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum is an art museum in Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. The center of the museum is a building whose interior was designed by Henry van de Velde to house Karl Ernst Osthaus' art collection, open to the public as the Folkwang Museum...

.

Osthaus was a notable patron of the European avant-garde. Although in his early life he tended to German nationalism, active in the Pan German League and supporting figures such as the Austrian Georg von Schönerer, Osthaus's nationalism became tempered with interest in transforming Hagen and Germany into the leading centers of the European avant-garde. Under the guidance of Henry van de Velde, Osthaus began a collection of European modernist painting that comprised one of the first purely modernist collections to be open to the public. The Folkwang in Hagen sponsored some of the earliest exhibits of Expressionist painting, and the collection early on included works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a...

, Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...

, and Christian Rohlfs

Christian Rohlfs

Christian Rohlfs was a German painter, one of the important representatives of German expressionism....

 and work by non-German artists such as Aristide Maillol

Aristide Maillol

Aristide Maillol or Aristides Maillol was a French Catalan sculptor and painter.-Biography:...

, Jan Thorn-Prikker

Jan Thorn-Prikker

Johan Thorn Prikker was a Dutch painter and designer in the Art Nouveau style. He was an important figure in religious art, best known for his stained glass windows. His most famous painting is the mystical The Bride , in the Kroller-Muller Museum, Otterlo.-External links:*...

, and Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French artist, known for his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter...

.

Osthaus also attempted to spark interest in avant-garde architecture in Hagen. In this regard, he encountered many frustrations. In some ways, the story of the projects that were not built is more interesting than the projects that were built. Major architects including Henry van de Velde

Henry van de Velde

Henry Clemens Van de Velde was a Belgian Flemish painter, architect and interior designer. Together with Victor Horta and Paul Hankar he could be considered one of the main founders and representatives of Art Nouveau in Belgium...

, Richard Riemerschmid

Richard Riemerschmid

Richard Riemerschmid was a German architect, painter, designer and city planner from Munich. He was a major figure in Jugendstil, the German form of Art Nouveau, and a founder of architecture in the style...

, Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens

Peter Behrens was a German architect and designer. He was important for the modernist movement, as several of the movements leading names worked for him when they were young.-Biography:Behrens attended the Christianeum Hamburg from September 1877 until Easter 1882...

, and Walter Gropius

Walter Gropius

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....

 were all active in Hagen. A small artist colony also emerged including the sculptress Milly Steger, the Dutch artist and theosophist J.L.M. Lauweriks, and a score of figures important for Hagen's local cultural history.

Osthaus's Jugendstil villa, the Hohenhof

Hohenhof

Hohenhof is a 1908-built Art Nouveau villa, located within Gartenstadt Hohenhagen in the city of Hagen, Germany. The villa was designed by Belgian architect Henry van de Velde as a Gesamtkunstwerk - incorporating shell, accessories, furnishings, landscape and all into the building's design.The...

, is one of the most important examples of bourgeois Jugendstil architecture in Europe. It was recently renovated and is open to the public.

External links