Mattis Teutsch and Der Blauer Reiter
Hubertus Gaßner

Notes

1. Hans Mattis Teutsch, quot. from: Gheorghe Vida, Hans Mattis Teutsch und der europäische Dialog der Formen, in: Rumänische Rundschau, Bucarest 1984, No. 12, p. 96.

2. Mircea Deac, Mattis Teutsch und der konstruktive Realismus, Cluj-Napoca 1985, p. 65. In her afterword to the German edition of Kunstideologie by Mattis Teutsch, Elisabeth Axmann makes the same statement, but gives as little proof for it as Deac: “One often compares Mattis Teutsch with his Munich friend Franz Marc and there are many reasons for this approximation; one of the most important ones is the colour of movement and contrast, which above all the abstract and thence the later paintings by Franz Marc demonstrate.” Elisabeth Axmann, in: Hans Mattis-Teusch, Kunstideologie, Kriterion Verlag Bukarest 1977, p. 102; Anca Pop states in the catalogue of the exhibition of Mattis Teutsch organized by her in Gent, 1999: “Kandinsky’s theories, as expressed in Über das Geistige in der Kunst, and his abstract landscapes, as well as Franz Marc’s pantheistic view of the world, certainly had a very strong influence on Mattis Teutsch. In his landscapes he endeavoured to express harmony between man and nature. Rhythm in the lines, colours and different areas of the canvas became the basic principle for organically blending people, animals and trees into a landscape. Also striking is the Romanian artist’s partiality for blue, violet and yellow in equal intensity, a preference he shared with Franz Marc.” Exhibition cat. Hans Mattis Teutsch, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Gent 1999, p. 49ff.

3. Mircea Deac, op. cit., p. 58. The strongest pretention of an acquaintance between Mattis Teutsch, Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter is that of Claus Stephani. He obviously draws his information from discussions probably held with Marie Mattis Teutsch, married to Mattis Teutsch since 1918, in the middle of the 60s in Kronstadt: “Between 1903 and 1905 Mattis Teutsch lives in Munich. He visits museums, exhibitions, attends lectures of art and art history, meets Edmund Kanoldt, Gabriele Münter, the admirer of Kandinsky - he gets to know Wassily Kandinsky himself only later in Paris – and the two Russians Moissej Kogan and Waldimir Bechtejeff. Mattis Teutsch’s wood engravings since 1918 and the paintings of nudes in the midst of nature have in fact a lot in common with the paintings of Bechtejeff, a member of Der Blauer Reiter (1911-1914) although the works of Mattis Teutsch are much later. Mattis Teutsch would hardly have been able to meet Edmund Kanoldt, late Romanticist painter of landscapes because he lived in Karlsruhe and had died already in 1904. His son, the painter Alexander Kanoldt, however did indeed live in Munich but only since 1909, when Mattis Teutsch had left the city already for Paris. Alexander Kanoldts’ painterly work was strongly determined in his Munich years first by the acquaintance with the Fauvist Jawlensky and he was one of the founding members of the “Neue Künstler-Vereinigung“, established on 22. 01. 1909 which can be considered as one of the precursor organizations of Der Blauer Reiter, even though Kanoldt’s interests were diametrally opposed to the aims of this group. In the 1920s the painter became one of the eminent representatives of Neue Sachlichkeit. Bearing in mind such discrepancies in the statements of C. Stephani we have to evaluate also the following observation: “The acquaintance with Kandinsky ... who since 1902 was a member of the Société du Salon d’Automne gives Mattis Teutsch the opportunity to take part in an exhibition of this society and afterwards of the Indépendents. When Mattis Teutsch is occasionally in Berlin and works for some months in the studio of Franz Metzner as sculptor, he meets Kandinsky again: “I was strongly under the influence of this man“ (Claus Stephani, Der Weg eines Künstlers. Hans Mattis Teutsch, in: Brigitte Stephani (ed.), Sie prägten unsere Kunst. Studien und Aufsätze, Cluj-Napoca 1985, p. 222). Kandinsky became sociétaire, i.e. member of the Paris salon d’automne only from 1905. Between 1907 and 1909, the time, when Mattis Teutsch was in Paris, Kandinsky took part in the Salon des Artistes Indépendants every year. Mattis Teutsch may have in fact seen his works there since he was in Paris from the end of 1905 till 1908. Furthermore the Parisian art journal Les Tendances Nouvelles published between 1906 and 1909 about 40 graphic works by Kandinsky – mostly wood engravings of a fairytale symbolistic character. Mattis Teutsch might have seen these too and they may have influenced his own later wood engravings even though Kandinsky’s themes can hardly have interested him. Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter stayed in fact in Berlin in the year of 1908 – in the same year as Mattis Teutsch – and even had their own studio there. With Maria Strakosch, a former pupil of the Munich Phalanx-school and her husband, Alexander Strakosch, Kandinsky and Münter listened to the weekly lectures of the theosophist and anthroposophist, Rudolf Steiner, in the Berlin House of Architects. It is quite possible that Mattis Teutsch also frequented these meetings. There is however no proof for it up to now.

4. Gheorghe Vida, op. cit., p. 92-93. The art historian Gudrun-Liane Ittu states rightly in her Master’s thesis Hans Mattis Teutsch: His work and thought that in the literature on Mattis Teutsch his “spiritual kinship with Kandinsky“ is often mentioned although there is no proof that the two had met and known each other in person. An interview by the author in the 90s with the 85 year old Jana Korsch, who lived with Mattis Teutsch in the same house in Kronstadt had confirmed however that both artists had met. (Gudrun-Liane Ittu, Hans Mattis Teutsch: His work and thought, Final Thesis for the MA Programme in the History and Philosophy of Art and Architecture. Central European University, June 1995. A typoscript of this work was kindly given to me by Mr. Nicolas Éber, Zurich).

Ms. Ittu does however not make it clear when the acquaintance was made. It is probable that Mattis Teutsch and Kandinsky did not meet after the turn of the century in Munich or between 1905-1908 in Paris or Berlin but only in the 1920s when Mattis Teutsch travelled from Brassó to Berlin several times and visited the Bauhaus in Weimar where he could have met Kandinsky.

5. Gheorghe Vida, op. cit., p. 95.

6. Elisabeth Axmann notes on the large-sized painting Der Blaue Reiter: “Why does this title which ran a glorious carreer in the European art of the beginning of the century reappear in the work of the 42 year old who has been living in his hometown of Brassó for 6 years and teaches in an industrial high school? Is it nostalgia for the glorious student days of the avant-garde, is it the confession of belonging to the art of the famous masters or just the opposite, a late reply,a Der Blauer Reiter on his own account? As the painting appears - ... – all this can simultaneously be seen in it. Everything except the refusal of the traditions to which he felt close.” in: Hans Mattis-Teusch, Kunstideologie, Kriterion Verlag, Bucharest, 1977, p. 102.

7. Gudrun-Liane Ittu, Hans Mattis Teutsch, ein ‚spritualistischer‘ Künstler und Denker, in: Forschungen zur Volks- und Landeskunde, Rumänische Akademie. Institut für Gesellschaftlich-Humanistische Forschungen Sibiu/Hermannstadt, Vol. 39, No. 1-2, Bucarest 1996, p. 109.

8. Mircea Deac, op. cit., p. 62.

9. Mircea Deac, op. cit., p. 60.

10 Gudrun-Liane Ittu, op. cit. p. 110-11; comp.: Krisztina Passuth , Oeuvre de János Mattis Teutsch au Musée des Beaux Arts, in: Acta Historiae Artium, 46-47, Budapest, 1976, p. 114) and Julia Szabó 10, Blaue Seele / Seelenblume. Zur Geschichte eines Motivs in Symbolismus und Expressionismus, in: Acta Historia Artium Hung., Vol. 39, Budapest 1997, p. 165-196.

11. Gudrun-Liane Ittu, p. 109; regarding the interest of Kandinsky and Mattis Teutsch in theosophy and anthroposophy, see Gudrun-Liane Ittu, op. cit.

12. Gheorghe Vida, op. cit., p. 94.

13. Taken from a review from 1898, quot. from: Ekkehard Mai, Akademie, Sezession und Avantgarde. München um 1900, in: Thomas Zacharias (ed.), Tradition und Widerspruch. 175 Jahre Kunstakademie München, Munich 1985, p. 145-178, here p. 156.

14. Julia Szabó, quot. from: Hubertus Gaßner, Wem die Fähigkeit gegeben ist, in die Sonne zu sehen. Csontváry – ein genialer Dilletant, in: exhibition cat.: Tivadar Kosztka Csontváry, Haus der Kunst München 1994/1995, p.8.

15. József Rippl-Rónai, quot. from: exhibition cat. Die NABIS Propheten der Moderne, Kunsthaus Zürich 1993, Munich 1993, p. 384.

16. Werner Ross, Bohemiens und Belle Epoque. Als München leuchtete, Berlin 1997, p. 228.

17. Akten des Bayerischen Haupstaatsarchivs München, quot. from: Susanne Böller, Die Akademie feiert sich selbst, in: Helmut Bauer / Elisabeth Tworek, Schwabing. Kunst und Leben um 1900, exhibition cat. Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich 1998, p. 282, annot. 57.

18. Statuten der Königlich Bayerischen Akademie der Schönen Künste, quot. from: Wieland Schmied / Gerd Roos, Giorgio de Chirico, Munich 1906-1909, p. 98.

19. op. cit. p. 98

20. Hans Mattis Teutsch, in the catalogue of his solo exhibition, Brassó 1921. The student of sculpture, Mattis Teutsch, may well have been familiar with the neo-classical style of Hans von Hildebrand tending towards severity of form and simplicity. Already during his studies in Budapest he was very much interested in classical and old Egyptian sculpture. As late as 1931, in the illustrations for the last chapter of Kunstideologie, he expresses his enthusiasm for old Egyptian art and it is recognizable how his silhouettes resemble Egyptian models. When Mattis Teutsch left Paris in 1908 for Berlin he dedicated himself to following in the footsteps of Gottfried Schadows to the laws of proportion in classical sculpture and architecture. For the modernity and continuing importance of Hildebrand’s psychology of perception comp. Hildebrand’s basic publication Das Problem der Form in der Bildenden Kunst (1893) and Barbara Eschenburg, Die Münchner Plastik von Hildebrand bis zu den 50er Jahren, in: exhibition cat. Figürliche Plastik im Lenbachhaus 1830-1930, ed. Helmut Friedel, Munich 1997.

21. Susanne Böller, Die Akademie feiert sich selbst, op. cit., p. 283.

22. Paul Klee 1899, quot. from Maria Makela, The Munich Secession. Art and Artists in turn-of-the century Munich, Princeton University Press, Princeton New Jersey, 1990, p. 127.

23. Günter Brucher, Kandinsky. Wege zur Abstraktion, Munich 1999, p. 42.

24. Hajo Düchting, Franz Marc, Cologne 1991, p. 33.

25. During her stay in Paris Gabriele Münter visits the drawing classes of Théophile Steinlen and in 1907 she does oil sketches in the park of Saint-Cloud and in Sèvres in the style of late or neo-impressionism. When she sees the Gauguin retospective in the Salon d’Automne of 1906, she is impressed but does not change her style as yet. Only when she returns to Munich and Murnau in 1908 together with Kandinsky, she begins, like him to digest the impressions received by Gauguin and Matisse. The sensualistic painting culture of late impressionism gives way to a large scale manner of painting which tries to eliminate “all the insignificant“ (Kandinsky 1909) and choses for the summarily treated colour fields a colouring between the glowing but muted colouredness of Gauguins and the eruptive colourness of the Fauves. The shades of red, blue, purple or green which Münter often lightens with a lot of white resemble in their bright palette the colouring that Mattis Teutsch chooses for his oil paintings from 1915 to 1917.

26. Comp. Maria Makela, op. cit., p. 181, annot. 2.

27. Wassily Kandinsky to Gabriele Münter, quot. from: Maria Makela, op. cit., p. 133.

28. Programm der Debschitz-Schule, quot. from: Helumt Bauer, Schwabing Kunst und Leben um 1900, Bildband, Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich 1998, p. 137.

29. Hermann Obrist in: Silvie Lampe-von Benningsen (ed.), Hermann Obrist, Erinnerungen, Munich , not dated, p. 24. In regard to the artistic creation of Obrist in Munich and his exemplary role for the organic abstraction of Blauer Reiter comp. exhibition cat. Kandinsky und München. Begegnungen und Wandlungen 1896-1914, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1982.

30. Ernst Haeckel, quoted from: Regine Prange, Bruno Tauts Architekturphantasien, in: Hartmut Eggert (ed.), Faszination des Organischen. Konjunkturen einer Kategorie der Moderne, p. 113; the volume Kunstformen der Natur by Ernst Haeckel has appeared as a complete reprint of all 100 plates in colour by the publishing house Schirmer und Mosel, Munich, 1999.

31. Gudrun-Liane Ittu, 1996, op. cit., p. 110.

32. With regard to Ernst Haeckel’s influence on the artists of the Munich symbolism comp. Siegfried Wichmann, Jugendstil Floral Funktional, Munich/Herrsching 1984.

33. Maria Makela, The Munich Secession. op. cit., p. 132.

34. Günter Brucher, Kandinsky. Wege zur Abstraktion, op. cit., p. 75.

35. ibid. p. 77. With regard to the influence of Gauguin, the Nabis and Matisse on Jawlensky’s paintings comp. Jürgen Schultze, Umgang mit Vorbildern. Jawlensky und die französische Kunst bis 1913, in: exhibition cat. Alexej Jawlensky 1864-1941, ed. Armin Zweite, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1983.

36. Paul Gauguin, quoted from Roland März, Tahiti-Moritzburg und zurück. Gauguin und die deutschen Expressionisten, in: exhibition cat. Paul Gauguin. Das verlorene Paradies, Museum Folkwang Essen, Essen 1998/1999, p. 284.

37. Hans Mattis Teutsch in the catalogue of his solo exhibition, Brassó 1921.

38. Roland März, Tahiti-Moritzburg und zurück, op. cit., p. 284.

39. Paul Gauguin, quot. from Roland März, Tahiti-Moritzburg und zurück, op. cit., p. 282.

40. The house and collection of Felix vom Rath had been open to the lovers of contemporary art and a further circle of artists and persons interested in art, among them also Jawlensky and Werefkin since 1904. For the two artists, who, at the latest by 1912, owned several works by Gaugin, the meeting with Gaugin in the house of vom Rath was, according to their own words, the very first, which is surprising since works of the artist had been shown in the Phalanx exhibition one year earlier.

41. comp. Andrea Pophanken, Moderne französische Kunst in München. Zur Sammlung Alfred und Hanna Wolff, in: Schwabing. Kunst und Leben um 1900, p. 295-302.

42. Aurier and Denis quoted from Armin Zweite, Jawlensky in München, in: Exhibition cat. Alexej Jawlensky 1864-1941, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich 1983, p. 56.

43. Annette Gautherie-Kampka, Impulse, Wechselbeziehungen und Abgrenzungsstrategien. Fauvismus und Expressionismus vor 1914.

44. Valéria Majoros in her monograph on the artist Irén Lukász quotes a later good friend of Mattis Teutsch, who communicated that he befriended Matisse in Paris. Majoros herself however writes that there is no proof of this. Valéria Majoros, Mattis Teutsch, Budapest 1998, p. 15. Claus Stephani and Anca Pop repeat this hypothesis of their friendship without further details or arguments. About the life of students in the Académie Matisse the former academy student Oskar Moll writes in: S. and D. Salzmann, Oskar Moll. Leben und Werk, Munich 1975.

45. Annette Gautherie-Kampka, op. cit., p. 13.

46. Hans Mattis Teutsch from information from his son, quot. from: Mircea Deac, op. cit., p. 59.

47. Mattis Teutsch studied in Paris also with Lucien Simon, together with his friend and school mate from Kronstadt, Hans Eder, who had already accompanied him to the academy in Munich. In Munich Eder had painted portraits, among others of the writer Heinrich Mann as well as the poet and anarchist Erich Mühsam, whom he and maybe also Mattis Teutsch had met in the Bavarian capital. In Paris Mattis Teutsch was in contact with Romanian artists like the painter and school mate Fritz Kimm, but also with Brancusi, of whom he painted a portrait in pastels at that time (Collection Dr. Emil Bologa, Brassó,47 x 37 cm). Barbu Brezeanu writes about this picture in: Arta, No. 5, Bucarest 1976 Centenar Brancusi. Un portret de Mattis Teutsch.

48. These female figures by Mattis Teutsch, created in 1915, seem to be sisters of the female nudes of the Hungarian Nabis-artist Rippl-Rónai. In his Park with Nudes of 1910, e.g. the row of 6 heavily contoured naked female figures forms a strong rythmical and harmonically moving pattern of high musicality with the row of 11 vertical tree trunks situated behind them. A year later, in 1911, Károly Kernstock created the sketches for the glass windows of the Art Nouveau villa Schiffer in Budapest. The motif of flower picking women as well as the planar-arabesque rendition of them naked or dressed, in S-curves decoratively waved bodies are not thinkable without the example of the Parisian Nabis like Maurice Denis or Serusier. At the same time Kernstock’s female figures in the sketch for a glass window show striking similarities with the female nudes of Mattis Teutsch created only a little later even if their shapes and colour resemble more the nudes of Matisse of 1908/09 than the Art Nouveau figures of Kernstock.

49. In 1909 the Notes of Matisse are translated into German by the wife of his pupil Oskar Moll and are published in the magazine Kunst und Künstler under the title Notizen eines Malers. It seems obvious that Mattis Teutsch, who read and spoke German fluently will soon thereafter have taken note of them.

50. Annette Gautherie-Kampka, op. cit., p. 14.

51. Iván Hevesy, Mattis-Teusch Janos, Ma Budapest 15. October 1917

51. Lajos Kassak, introduction for the catalogue of the Ma-exhibition of Mattis-Teusch, Budapest 1917, reprinted in: Ma, 5. Dec. 1917.

52. Iván Hevesy, Mattis Teutsch, quot. from: Eva Hárs / Ferenc Romváry, Die moderne ungarische Galerie Pécs, Corvina Verlag, Budapest 1981, p. 118.

53. Maurice Denis, 1913, quot. from: exhibition cat. Die NABIS Propheten der Moderne, op. cit., p. 159

54. Franz Marc, quot. from: Roland März, Tahiti-Moritzburg und zurück, op. cit., p. 283.

55. Roland März, op. cit., p. 283ff.

56. Roland März, op. cit., p. 283.

57. Franz Marc, Über das Tier in der Kunst, quot. from: Hajo Düchting, Franz Marc, op. cit., p. 31.

58. In regard to the Internationale Postimpressionistische Ausstellung in the Budapest House of Artists (February – March 1913), in which the group of Blauer Reiter was represented as well as the exhibition Futuristen und Expressionisten in the Budapest National Salon (January – February 1913) opened only a few weeks earlier and which showed 24 works of Jawlensky and 5 of Kandinsky but none of Franz Marc comp. Monika Wucher in: exhibition cat., Der Blaue Reiter, Kunsthalle Bremen 2000, Cologne 2000, p. 76 – 78.

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