The painter and his controversial nude

Created: 09/14/2022, 19:00

By: Markus Schwarzkugler

The Schrader Velgen Ring in Wartenberg.

©Roland Albrecht

Our street name series today is dedicated to the Schrader-Velgen-Ring in Wartenberg.

The artist loved the place and caused a stir there with a controversial painting long after his death.

Wartenberg – In terms of art history, Wartenberg has a lot to offer.

In our series we have already dedicated ourselves to the artists Hermann Groeber and Robert Weise, after whom streets in the town are named.

To the east of Moosburger Straße there is also the Schrader-Velgen-Ring, which meanders through the residential area like a somewhat out of shape U.

Its two ends flow into the Untere Bergstraße.

The street hose is named after the impressionist painter Carl Hans Schrader-Velgen, who was born in Hanover in 1876 and died there in 1945.

In the meantime he lived and worked in Wartenberg.

Among other things, his work “Hot Day” was exhibited there.

And as the name suggests in a somewhat ambiguous way: the picture seemed a bit too piquant to some viewers, as the art historian Heike Kronseder from Wartenberg recalls with a grin.

"Through clever negotiations, the market community had a loan from public property in Munich for a long time," she looks back.

The large-format painting measuring 137 by 181 centimeters was exhibited in the foyer of the town hall for a long time.

On it you can see: naked children playing unabashedly and casually on the shore of a lake.

Carl Hans Schrader Velgen.

© Private

Some viewers were bothered by this: “The entire painting was flooded with light, and when you looked at it you could feel the comforting feeling of hot summer days.

For many guests, memories were awakened of carefree bathing days during the summer holidays, of their own trips to swim when they were children,” says Kronseder.

But: “Some viewers also felt morally disturbed by the sight of the naked boys and girls.

There were some discussions about the painting,” Kronseder remembers well.

She herself was little offended, but happy that the picture was on view at the time: "Fortunately, the mayors of the community recognized the high artistic value of the picture, as it is a milestone in art history, an excellent and extremely noteworthy painting," enthuses Kronseder almost.

It wonderfully represents impressionism, the prevailing mood, the play with light and shadow. Impressionism is a style of art from the 19th century that is characterized by the atmospheric depiction of fleeting snapshots.

From 1897 Carl Hans Schrader-Velgen studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich with Paul Hoecker and Ludwig von Herterich.

He then freed himself from academia.

The painter of nudes, landscapes and still lifes became a member of the Munich Secession.

This is an association of visual artists that was created in 1892 as a spin-off from the Munich artists' cooperative in order to resist the paternalism of the state art establishment and its conservative exhibition policy - and also against the traditional Wilhelminian era shaped by Munich's painter prince Franz von Lenbach .

Schrader-Velgen, who received a gold medal at the International Art Exhibition in 1913, was given a large exhibition in November 1995 in the Strogenhalle, with almost 140 items on loan from mostly private collections.

That was no coincidence, because around 1925 the artist chose Wartenberg as his place of painting and then also as his place of life.

In 1919 he married the artist Hedwig Olbrich, she was one of his students.

With her he came to Wartenberg.

The couple lived in the Loibl house.

also read

The Forstern Dance Spirits

New Rotary Club around Dorfen

“Schrader-Velgen organized so-called summer academies in Haimhausen every summer.

He brought many of his students with him to Wartenberg – they enjoyed the summer time painting and looking for motifs in the village,” says Kronseder.

He was also happy to bring his nude models from Munich.

"He was a gifted portraitist who was able to portray the character of the person portrayed," says Kronseder.

“There are a few portraits by him in the Wartenberg art collection of the municipality, but also landscapes.

He often used a very lively color scheme,” says the art historian.

Incidentally, the loan period for the spicy work “Hot Day” has now expired, and the painting has been back in Munich for a few years.

"It's a shame, I think," says Kronseder.

Incidentally, the painting received the gold medal at an exhibition in the Glaspalast in Munich in 1913.

It just didn't bother everyone, especially not over a century ago.