Here we have a rare German etching from one of the artists labeled as a Degenerate artist by the Nazis, Franz Maria Jansen. The piece depicts a bridge over the Rhine River. This is a rare bird indeed. I once found another example in a German museum, but now I can't even find that listing.
The rare artwork is pencil signed in the lower right, "F.M. Jansen." There is also a stamp in the paper in the lower left corner stating "Hein W. Heroth Munchen." On the reverse there is a framing tag stating "Kunsthandel, A.v.d. Karbargeboer, Amsterdam, Den Haag, SPUI 14-16, Passage 33." For more about this important German artist, see the biography below.
The framed art print 32" x 23.5". The exposed image measures about 22.5" x 14.5". There is a small tear in the lower left corner (see pic). There is some slight discoloration (foxing?) and small creases throughout the piece but it doesn't take away from the visual. There is also discoloration along the edges, especially the upper right corner. The piece has not been observed out of the frame. Please see all pics as they are part of the description.
Here's a biography courtesy of Wikipedia:
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Franz M. Jansen studied from 1905 to 1906 Architecture at the Technical University in Karlsruhe . From 1906 to 1910 he was a master student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna . His arisen in these years early work was still strong content symbolically and in its arabesque lines also from Art Nouveau influenced. Upon his return to Cologne was Franz Maria Jansen Member of the German Association of Artists. In 1911 was Jansen co-founder of the "Cologne Secession" and Gereon clubs . In 1912 he became a member of the Berlin Secession . Jansen's own artistic development is by his choice of means of artistic expression, which substantially etching and the wood and linocut specified. Although he tried his hand at this time of oil paintings (among others, he won the Silver Medal of the City of Cologne for his Panorama Am Rhein), but it is mainly his early graphic portfolios and cycles, which made him known. In a short time the cycle 6 days in the life of a boy was born, then on a trip to Italy, which in 1913 led him to Venice, the cycle, the black gondolas, eventually the wallets Industry and The Iron Rhine. The latter two portfolios originated with his friend, peers painter Ernst Isselmann . Been studio neighbors in Bridge Tower of Ruhrort-Homberger Rheinbrücke in Duisburg. Issel husband was an avid sailor was and they took some tour together.
In World War I he made from 1915 to 1918 his military service from 1917 he married the painter Fifi Kreutzer, whose name he took Mathilde of affection as "M." in his stage name. In 1918 he wrote his manifesto About Expressionism. From 1918 to 1925 he had close contacts with Franz Pfemfert magazine The action. Franz M. Jansen maintained a close contact with other painters like Carlo Mense and writers such as Hermann Hesse. In 1919 he moved to Winterscheid in the victory circle in 1920 he lived for a time in Hamburg.
In the years 1928 to 1930 Jansens works were on the selection exhibitions German graphic in Paris , Zurich, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago and Buenos Aires shown. In 1934, Jansen moved to Büchel, where he lived until his death and worked.
Under the Nazi regime Jansen was not among the artists who had to leave Germany, such as George Grosz or Franz Pfemfert. Jansens monumental oil painting New Objectivity adapted themselves early with these standards, and so he was then also shown consistently in March 1933 on a jury-free exhibition in Berlin. His membership in the professional organization of " Reichskulturkammer " was necessary for such participation.
In 1934, Jansen together with Jacob Berwanger the murals in the University of Cologne under the motto German man in German landscape (Figure Size 160 cm), after he received a 1st prize for his design German races in a competition held by the University of competition. The city of Cologne ordered 1937 oil painting Rheinansicht for the "State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior and Reich Sports Leader" Hans von Tschammer and East (1887 to 1943) and in 1940 they bought the photos Cologne from Domtürmen and winter evening (both oil). The club dining rooms and their outer walls in the barracks of Lüdenscheid designed Jansen in 1937 on behalf of the Armed Forces Operations with the monumental fresco soldiers past and present. As in Köln here the characters had a size of 160 cm, the overall height of the fresco was 2 m, the length of about 30 m. When he then the Cologne Art Association 1935, a solo exhibition on the occasion of his 50th birthday devoted, he in Hamburg on the traveling exhibition "German Art in Olympic 1936" (21 July to 20 September 1936) was seen in March at the attended trade show in Cologne spring Fair, the national socialist regime of its socialist past remembered.
Because of his writings to Expressionism, which arose in the early 1920s, and his woodcuts (mainly in the journal The Action ) 157 works were Jansens as " degenerate art " confiscated. Although Jansen was not forbidden to paint, but on the big exhibition "Degenerate Art" in Munich (19 July to 30 November 1937) was in a showcase of his woodcuts from the collection of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum shown.
In the following years, Jansen was but then again with the regime-approved art at exhibitions Strength through Joy in the Hamburger Kunsthalle (1938) and from the west of Germany in Cologne (1939) to see.
In the traditional representations states Jansen had from 1944 to 1945 to complete his military service. In fact, he pointed out after 1939 in occupied Poland orders under the Nazi conception of art. He designed a monumental mural as part of the targeted by the Nazi regime "Germanization" conquered Polish territories for the former drapers hall at the market place in October of 1939 in Moosburg (Wartheland) renamed city Przedecz. This painting consisted of four main images of each 6.50 meters in length. In the first picture German Teutonic Knights were shown in the attachment of the former "Moosburg" during the 14th century. The second image is a guard parade at the capture of the city by Prussia in 1784 again. The third picture showed the invasion of Nazi Wehrmacht in 1939. The last image provides an apotheosis of Nazi resettlement programs "Heim ins Reich" - in the contemporary press hailed as "the Song of the largest mass migration of all time". Between these main images extra connectors were; they each represented knights and soldiers of the periods presented, including SS and SA men with Fahnendrapierung.
The picturesque implementing this monumental work was carried out by Jansen and his mates Saviour. They were apparently freed for this work from usual at this time service obligations. In a biographical compilation is of a "study trip" to the "territories" in 1943 the speech.
After the Second World War he was in 1946 co-founded the in the Rheinisch-Bergischer artist circle . Some of his works were, a year after his death in 1958 in Büchel, posthumously in 1959 at the documenta 2 in Kassel shown in the graphic department. Various exhibitions in Bonn August-Macke-Haus were devoted Franz M. Jansen and his wife Fifi Kreutzer Jansen. In early 2008 a retrospective of his paintings will be shown here.
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I ship to the continental USA only. Free shipping on shipping the rare German print.
I guarantee you I'll never have the opportunity to own another Jansen piece this rare again. Don't miss out.
