Sascha Schneider – { feuilleton }

Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #19

Water Serpents I by Gustav Klimt. See it in colour here.

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Yesterday’s post concerned a Klimt-like artist, today volume 19, covering the period from October 1906 to March 1907, includes further work by Klimt himself. The Wiener Werkstätte, with whom Klimt was affiliated, continues to dominate these editions, understandably so when the architecture, art and design being produced by the group was some of the most advanced in the world. In addition to the customary graphics and interiors there’s also some examples of dress design by Gustav Klimt which I hadn’t seen before.

As usual, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire number at the Internet Archive. There’ll be more DK&D next week.

A portrait of Margaret Stonborough-Wittgenstein by Gustav Klimt. The sitter was the sister of Ludwig Wittgenstein.

A poster by Koloman Moser.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #15

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. This week there’s another jump in the running order, from volume 12 to 15, and it’s impossible to avoid feeling frustrated by this when some of the previous editions have been so good. Volume 15 covers the period from October 1904 to March 1905, and includes work by the Wiener Werkstätte whose rectilinear designs mark the transition from Art Nouveau to what would eventually be called Art Deco. There’s also another feature on the Glasgow Arts and Crafts movement based around Charles Rennie Mackintosh with a look at the designs for Hill House in Helensburgh, Scotland. As usual, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire volume at the Internet Archive. There’ll be more DK&D next week.

The peculiar Symbolist paintings of gay artist Sascha Schneider are featured once again, and typically for this artist there’s a profusion of male flesh on display.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #7

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 7 covers the period from October 1900 to March 1901 and features a set of ornamental capitals throughout this edition designed by Karl Lürtzing, part of a presentation of typefaces in the Art Nouveau style. The figures in Lürtzing’s alphabet all seem to be Biblical or mythological (as with David and Eve above) although some are easier to decipher than others. Volume 6 paid a visit to the Exposition Universelle in Paris and there’s a few more examples from that event here, along with further examinations of the best in German art and design. As usual, anyone wishing to see these samples in greater detail is advised to download the entire volume (which comprises over 300 pages) at the Internet Archive. There’ll be more DK&D next week.

Remarkable interiors by Richard Riemerschmid.

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Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration #5

Continuing the delve into back numbers of Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration, the German periodical of art and decoration. Volume 5 covers the period from October 1899 to March 1900, and the Art Nouveau style is in full flower at this point, as it was across most of Europe. This is also the place at which the journal becomes so laden with impressive design work that it’s impossible to easily do justice to over 300 pages of contents. Anyone wanting to see more is encouraged to download the whole thing as either page scans or a PDF. As before I’ve tended to concentrate on the graphic material but this issue also features more lavish interior designs, a range of jewellery, and ponderous monumental architecture including proposals for some of Germany’s many Bismarck Towers. Examples follow below. There’ll be more DK&D next week when we take a trip to the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Sascha Schneider was Karl May’s favourite illustrator and one of the few openly gay artists in Germany at the time. He’s represented here with a small feature on his paintings among which there’s this depiction of a team of strapping oarsmen.

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Der Eigene: Kultur und Homosexualität

Der Eigene, collected edition, 1906. Design credited to Adolf Brand.

The subtitle is from an article (see below); Der Eigene, the world’s first homosexual periodical was devoted to an ideal of “masculine culture” which looked to Ancient Greece for a model of same-sex relationships. Adolf Brand (“Editor, photographer, poet, polemicist, activist, anarchist, enfant terrible“) founded Der Eigene in Berlin 1896, and to give some idea of how advanced the Germans were in these matters, consider that not only was this a year after Oscar Wilde had been imprisoned in Britain but that Brand’s publication was only the first of several journals advocating gay rights at a time when homosexual acts were still illegal in Germany. The radicalism fell short of including women, unfortunately; like many Grecophile pioneers of the time, Brand’s world had no place for females. All this activity was part of a peculiar ferment in Germany around 1900 which saw the rise of many small groups devoted to naturism, Theosophy, occultism in general, and various pagan revivals. There were also plenty of fiercely nationalist factions, of course, and these took a dim view of Brand’s outspoken homo-anarchism. When the nationalists later turned into the Nazis they destroyed Germany’s nascent gay culture.

Morgendämmerung (Dawn) by Sascha Schneider, 1897. This drawing also appeared in Jugend magazine the same year.

The pictures here are from sets at Wikimedia Commons where the section devoted to the magazine has finally been amended with some higher-resolution copies. It’s a shame there isn’t more to see given that Der Eigene ran until 1932. I’ll be hoping for further works to come to light as the digitisation of rare publications gathers pace.

Der Eigene, November, 1920.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Sanctuarium Artis Elisarion
• Jugend Magazine revisited
• The art of Sascha Schneider, 1870–1927
• Hadrian and Greek love