A house full of treasures - the studio of the painter Richard Lipps opens its doors on Sunday

Created: 02/17/2022, 07:00

Works of art from the ceiling to the basement: this coming Sunday, those who are interested can take a look at the studio of the painter Richard Lipps.

Gerd Holzheimer and Elisabeth Carr from the art spaces at the lake, Hans Lipp, the painter's great-grandnephew, and Benjamin Tillig, director of the local history museum (from left), are happy about every visitor.

© Dagmar Rutt

A unique look into an artistic treasure chest - this is possible next Sunday.

The doors of the studio of the painter Richard Lipps on Possenhofener Straße open to the public as part of the literary autumn.

Starnberg – If you come from Starnberg and regularly drive south along Possenhofener Straße, you may have often wondered what secret is hidden behind the large studio windows at house number 21 – now it will be revealed.

As part of the literary autumn, Elisabeth Carr and Gerd Holzheimer from the art spaces at the lake asked the Lipp family to make the space open to the public for a day.

After the corona pandemic made this impossible last autumn, the time has finally come.

The doors will open next Sunday.

According to the artist, the studio resembles a treasure chest.

"I've always suspected that there was something special behind my neighbor's huge studio windows," says Elisabeth Carr, who appreciates the fact that the painter Richard Lipps' great-grandnephew, Hans Lipp, is opening the artist's studio to the public.

The retired lawyer has not lived long in his great-granduncle's house, which is largely unchanged to this day.

Richard Lipps was an art student in Düsseldorf, Dresden and Munich

Richard Lipps was born on October 26, 1857, the son of a civil engineer.

He first studied mechanical engineering and worked as a technician for a few years before deciding to pursue art and trained in Dresden, Düsseldorf and Munich.

He attended the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1880 to 1882. His teachers there were Hugo Crola, Heinrich Lauenstein and Peter Janssen the elder, important representatives of the Düsseldorf school of painting, an internationally renowned artistic movement that provided important impulses for German and European painting.

In 1885 Lipps settled in Munich, at that time one of the most important European art centers frequented by young artists from all over the world.

Lipps successfully completed his studies in Munich with a copy of Jan Vermeer's painting The Letter Reader at the Open Window.

The picture has been preserved and can be seen in the Lipps home.

A farm in South Tyrol: The painting was created around 1900, like many of Richard Lipps' pictures from Italy.

© mm

In 1897, nature lover Richard Lipps moved to what was then still rural Starnberg, where he had built the house at Possenhofener Straße 21.

The design came from the well-known architect Carl Lemmes, who came from the Saarland industrial town of Neunkirchen, worked in Munich and built, among other things, the evangelical Christ Church in Landshut.

Over the years, the artist has decorated the house with numerous and elaborate carvings, which he made himself.

He was a member of the first board of directors of the Starnberg Museum Association and thus demonstrated his commitment to his new home.

Privately, however, he lived a rather withdrawn life.

Lipps remained unmarried throughout his life, his younger sister Käthe, "Aunt Käthchen", who lived on the Belle Etage, organized his household.

Both siblings are buried in the Hanfeld Cemetery.

Starnberg painter Richard Lipps traveled mainly to Austria and Italy

The artist's painting is assigned to the Munich School of the turn of the century.

Lipps sent his works with Mediterranean motifs to national and international exhibitions.

He liked to travel, several times to Austria and Italy.

He also often visited the artists' colony in Kallmünz, a place that became known through Wassily Kandinsky and his Phalanx painting school.

Since the First World War, visitors to Kallmünz have fallen sharply.

It has been handed down that Richard Lipps from Starnberg was the only painter recorded during the World War.

Richard Lipps made his paintings in watercolor and oil.

His pictures are flooded with light, the subjects and motifs are idyllic and close to nature, cheerful and sunny like the south.

They impress with their lively play of light and shadow and are worth discovering.

The Atelier Lipps at Possenhofener Straße 21 in Starnberg will be open to all interested citizens and art lovers next Sunday, February 20, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A binding registration with time to kontakt@kunstraueme-am-see.de is necessary.

The current corona protection measures apply.

BY ASTRID AMELUNGSE-KRUTH