A Journey Between Cultures Through Self–Portraiture

Grete Wolf–Krakauer (1890–1970): A Journey Between Cultures Through Self–Portraiture

By Smadar Sheffi
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem The Department of Art History

I would like to thank the Aharon Menczer Fund for its generous research scholarship and the Center for Austrian Studies and the European Forum at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem for publishing this paper. My deep thanks toProf. Gannit Ankori, under whose supervision I am writing my dissertation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for her continuous guidance, valuable remarks and encouragement. My thanks to Prof. Trude Dothan, who opened the Grete Wolf–Krakauer estate to me. She is a constant source of inspiration.

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..

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I.

EarlyPortraits and Self Portraits…………………………...……………………... Two Early Portraits…………………………………………………………………… A Portrait by Schiele………………………………………………………………….. Two Self–portraits (after August 1919)………………………………..……………...

4 4 8 9

II.

Self Portraits after Wolf–Krakauer's immigration to Palestine…………..……... Wolf–Krakauer in Nazareth………………………………………...………………… Two Painted Self–portraits on the Recto of FamilyMember Portraits and Three Affiliated Drawings……….…………….……………………...…….………………. Two Self portraits and a Drawing from the mid 1940s and early 1950s……….……..

13 13

15 24

III.

The Late Self–Portraits……………………………………………………………...

28

Concluding thoughts……………………….………………………………………………...

31

Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………….

33

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Introduction
In 1915, 25 year–old GreteWolf was already an established artist in Vienna. Nine years later she immigrated to Palestine. Portraits, which would later become her main occupation and source of income, were a considerable part of her output as a young artist. This research is part of a dissertation which investigates Wolf–Krakauer's remarkable oeuvre as a portraitist engaged in observing, exploring, and depicting people who,for the most part, belonged to her milieu. Sometimes, they were people whom she loved, and who were central to her world. The paper will focus on Wolf–Krakauer's self–portraits within the context of the broader genre of portraiture. Almost all the works presented here have not been exhibited or reproduced and have never been thoroughly explored. By looking at these self–portraits spanning fromher early career until the 1950s, we can observe changes in style and content as well as her unyielding ability to look and see. This body of work continues a long tradition of the self–portrait as autobiography.1 In Wolf–Krakauer's case, the study follows her contemplation of her own passages between cultures and her aging process in a changing world.

1

Max J. Friedlander, Landscape,Portrait, Still–Life, Their Origin and Development (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer, 1949), 231.

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I. Early Portraits and Self Portraits
Grete Wolf was born in Witkowitz, Moravia and raised in Vienna in a Jewish middle class family. Her parents supported her artistic pursuits from a very early age, probably before age ten. She Studied at the "Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen," founded in Vienna in 1897by A. F. Seligmann.2 Among her prominent teachers was Tina Blau.3 Between 1911–1915 she divided her time and spent time studying in Munich and Stuttgart, two cities then rich in avant garde art activity, and in Vienna. In Stuttgart she studied with Adolph Hölzel, a towering figure in the middle European cultural world and in Vienna with Johannes Itten. By 1916 she had her own studio.

Two earlyportraits
Two early portraits are of special interest. Only photographs of both remain. The first, a portrait of an elderly woman is, to the best of my knowledge, the earliest portrait by Wolf. The second is a photograph of Wolf, probably in her studio, wearing a painter's frock, proudly holding a portrait, declaring her stance as an independent artist.

2

Akademie der bildenden Künste...