Dachau art colony
The Dachau art colony was an artists' colony located in Dachau, Germany, that flourished between the years 1890 and 1914.
History
Some 12 miles northwest of Munich, the bucolic village of Dachau had attracted landscape painters since the early 19th century.[1] By the second half of the century, Barbizon-influenced painters like Carl Spitzweg and Christian Morgenstern, and academic painters like Wilhelm von Diez had worked in and around Dachau.[1]
A new era opened in 1888 when the German painter Adolf Hölzel moved to Dachau.[2] In 1897 he and several other avant-garde artists — notably Ludwig Dill and Arthur Langhammer — set up an art school in Dachau that attracted artists from all over Europe, especially landscape painters and printmakers.[2] Many stayed and formed a colony, drawn both by the pictureque surrounding moors stretching to the distant Alps and by the lower cost of living than in nearby Munich.[2][1] The architect Georg Ludwig designed a group of residences for Dachau artists.[3]
The new colony achieved national recognition in 1898 when Hölzel, Dill, and Langhammer mounted a joint exhibition in Berlin under the title "The Dachauer".[1] So many artists passed through Dachau during its first fifteen years that certain subjects and views were reproduced repeatedly.[3] One especially popular subject was an old cottage surrounded by ancient poplars, known as the 'Moss Hut' (Moosschwaige).[3] The nearby moorland, called the Dachauer Moos, was another popular subject.[3]
The heyday of the colony lasted only until 1914, when many artists left to join the military during World War I and never returned.[1] In addition, new developments in art during the postwar era — especially the rise of urban and industrial subjects — began to leave Dachau colony artists behind.[1] After World War II, the art colony was nearly forgotten as Dachau became associated in most people's minds above all with the Dachau concentration camp.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 "Dachau Before Dachau: European Artist Colony 1860-1914". Oglethorpe University Museum of Art, 2009.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Marcuse, Harold. Legacies of Dachau: The Uses and Abuses of a Concentration Camp, 1933-2001. Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 17–18.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Lübbren, Nina. Rural Artists' Colonies in Europe, 1870–1910. Manchester University Press, 2001, pp. 4, 117.
