C. Götz Döhler, Sehnsucht (Longing)
Etching with aquatint, 1906
What is perhaps most surprising about this work is that the artist who created it, Götz Dohler, remains almost completely unknown. I have managed to discover a first initial, C., and a year of birth, 1867, and that's it. He's not listed in Bénézit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs. Google comes up with almost nothing. I can't find any record of work by Döhler being sold or offered for sale. Via Libri doesn't come up with any books or journals illustrated by him. It's as if he just created this one perfect work and then vanished into thin air. And yet no one acquires the technical skill shown in Sehnsucht without a lot of practice. I can imagine that if Götz Döhler remained doggedly faithful to Judgendstil he would have faded from view as that style became outmoded, and equally that his lush romantic sensibility would have been out-of-tune with the times once the catastrophe of the First World War go under way. But it still seems mysterious that so little can be ascertained about an artist of such stature. Do any of my readers know anything more about him?
Update 15 September 2013:
I correct myself: C. Götz Döhler is listed in Bénézit, with the variant spelling Doehler. He was born in Glachau on the 31st of March 1867. He studied in Leipzig, and seems to have lived and worked there. Although he is described as a painter and printmaker, his main work seems to have been designing and executing large decorative paintings.
9 comments:
I find this image really marvelous. I'm glad you suggested enlarging it since you can't really see how wonderful it really is in the small size. Great mystery indeed!
Neil, this is a beauty!
Dohler is apparently one of those artists, like Franz Melchers, who seems to have hit his high point early on, and then faded from view.
Why Jugendstil or L'Art nouveau was revived in the 1960s by people who evinced little interest in Austrian/German or French culture is a subject waiting for someone to write a book on it.
Yes, you have to enlarge it, because there's so much detail in it and it is quite dark - the etching plate has been deeply bitten, and the result is a page loaded with ink.
I was really excited when I first saw this etching, and immediately began looking around for other work by Dohler, only to draw a complete blank. Interesting comparison with Melchers, an artist who had such a brief window of renown.
I've just added an update to the main body of the post, with a few more fragments of information.
This looks as though he must have been fmailiar with Otto Eckmann's work but that's not to say it is derivative at all. It's good work and it gets better when you look closer.
Well, I guess all these artists were influencing and being influenced by each other. I just wonder whether any of Dohler's grand decorative schemes has survived.
A stunning image, Neil: thanks so much for posting it. I'll look out for references to Döhler's decorative work – haven't come across anything yet.
Thanks, Phil. I guess architectural journals are probably a likely source of more info.
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