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German Artists' Writings in the XX Century - 12
Arthur Kampf
From my Life [Aus meinem Leben]
Aachen, Museumsverein Aachen Publishers, 1950,
64 pages of text and 16 pages of black and white pictures
Review by Francesco Mazzaferro. Part Two
[Original Version: March 2017 - New Version: April 2019]
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| Fig. 72) The cover page of the monograph by Hans Rosenhagen on Arthur Kampf 1922 |
The years in Berlin
under Wilhelm II (1899-1918)
In 1899 Kampf received an offer he could not
refuse: he was appointed director and member of the Senate of the Academy of
Fine Arts in Berlin [40]. It should be noted, in passing, that the Berlin Secession
started its operations in the same year, just to oppose the activity of the
local Academy. Kampf accepted the job because he did not have any superiors to
respond to and he was therefore no longer in danger of being subjected to the control
of von Werner, the President of the Academy, with whom the personal relations seemed
to remain quite cold [41]. He was in charge for the education of the best
students in painting (six students every year), each of whom had a studio at disposal
[42]; as director, he even had
a personal servant under his command [43]. He threw himself into that position
for almost three decades, although it cannot be said that he gave rise to a veritable
school of followers. The artists who passed under him, as Walter Miehe
(1883-1972) and Hans List (1902-1977) or Else Berg (1877-1942), did not leave a
durable mark in German art history. In terms of style, the first was inspired
by Liebermann, the second seemed to fit well in the classicist art streams between
the twenties and thirties, while the third one clearly had an expressionist
inspiration.
Between 1903 and 1906, Kampf was president
of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition (Große
Berliner Kunstausstellung), the official exhibition of the academic painters fiercely
opposed by the Secession. Kampf accompanied the emperor on the occasion of the
inauguration of the exhibitions [44]. "The
emperor's attitude towards art was strongly influenced by the taste of his
mother [editor's note: Victoria of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the eldest
daughter of Queen Victoria] who was
herself painting and had grown up in the atmosphere of English painting around
1850-1870" [45].
During one of these visits to the Great Exhibition, Kampf had the proof of the
total aversion of William II against the Secession [46]. On another occasion,
the emperor expressed the praises of Böcklin [47]. In a third case, he supported
the need to avoid any new war, because of the immense costs in
human lives [48]. The emperor then conversed amiably with the painter about his own
grandson, Prince William [49]. Again, he met the painter during the war years, at
the headquarters of the Pinon Castle on the French front in 1915 [50] and for the last time in Kassel in
1917, when he was already immersed in the anxieties of the war, whose final
outcome was becoming fatal [51]. Finally, the emperor in exile sent him a
greeting card in 1939 on the occasion of the 75 years of the painter [52]. The
references to the emperor in the memoirs are indeed numerous and always very
amicable: "I had great esteem of the
Emperor and he was sincerely dear to me. Of course he had his faults, as all
people have flaws, without exception. I was always irritated by the attacks
against him. Maybe he came to power too soon. It was not his fault. Of course
he did everything he could to drive the empire in the right way and to preserve
peace for twenty-six years. In any case, the time of his government was the most
beautiful time of my life" [53].
From 1907, Arthur succeeded Anton von Werner as
President of the Senate of the Academy of Berlin. Thus, he became the
antithesis, from the academic side, of Max Lieberman, who chaired the
Secession. While personal relationships between Liebermann and von Werner were
so bad as to arrive to paranoia, Kampf talked about Liebermann as a friend, and
Liebermann confirmed the existence of good personal relationships in his Letters (albeit using more cautious
terms). Among others, Kampf had to oversee the transfer of the Academy in the
new and more modern headquarters at the Arnim Palace on Pariserplatz in Berlin,
in the same central square (from one side of the Brandenburg Gate) where Liebermann
lived and had his studio [54]. For the first two years, the right-hand man of Kampf in the Academy was Ludwig Justi (1876-1957), person of great qualities, art
critic and future director of the National Gallery in Berlin between 1909 and
1933 (the year in which he was finally ousted by the National Socialists).
The choice of themes of Kampf’s works over the
years in Berlin left no doubt that his preference for history painting and his
monumental style was perfectly fitting with the ideological orientation of his time,
namely German imperial nationalism. In 1903 he painted the "German monks spread Christianity in Poland"
[55], in a canvas with life-size figures, for the Catholic school of the city
of Poznan (at that time, the city was called Posen and was part of Prussia).
Theme and iconography were in line with the ideology of German superiority over
the Polish and Slavic world in general (Poland did not exist then as an
independent state, but was split between the German, Russian and
Austro-Hungarian empires).
The cycle of frescoes for the Kaiser-Friedrich
Museum in Magdeburg, completed in 1906, recalled episodes from the life of Otto
the Great of Saxony, founder of the Holy Roman Empire. "This museum had just been built and was
under the direction of Dr. Volbehr, who organized the rooms excellently. The
great fresco was due to decorate an ample hall, large in length and height,
through which one could reach the top floors. The image had a length of 17
meters and a height of 6 meters and a half. (...) I always had great pleasure
to paint a large surface, whether it was a wall or a canvas. In particular, I
was glad to paint life-size images or, as in the case of Magdeburg and in the
fresco of Fichte [editor's note: at the Humboldt University of Berlin - see Part One], figures with a larger
magnitude than natural ones. What I liked was to organize harmoniously shapes
and colours on a large surface” [56].
The fresco in the New Library of Berlin,
celebrating Frederick the Great while he delivers the library itself to the
Berlin scholars, was also called "The nourishment of the spirit". It
was a further homage to the ruling dynasty: the Renaissance-inspired
iconography (it was a kind of crossing point between the School of Athens by
Raphael and certain scenes by Veronese) was most probably chosen to strengthen the view
that Frederick belonged to a scholar tradition of science with deep roots in the past.
The aesthetic taste of
the era: the exhibitions at the Academy in Berlin
The exhibitions, which Kampf organized at the
Berlin Academy, were a testimony to the official taste of the time, and in
particular reflected the interest in the courtly art of previous centuries,
both the courtly art prevailing in competing powers as well as in Berlin itself. The
memoirs recalled in particular the exhibition of eighteenth century English
art, held in 1908, the one of French art of the same century, organized in
1910, and finally one on Frederick II of Prussia in 1912.
The exhibition of British art in 1700 was in
line with the aesthetic interest of the emperor's mother. Kampf wrote: “The English exhibition was a great success,
because for the first time the British art of the eighteenth century was shown
in full. All the great masters such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Hoppner,
Constable, Romney, and Hogarth were represented with their best works. Some of
the shown paintings had never left England before, as the "Blue Boy" by
Gainsborough, which was owned by the Duke of Westminster. I had made sure that the
Emperor, who was in England, would intercede in person with the Duke to obtain
the provision of the painting for the exhibition. The opening of the exhibition
was held in the presence of the Emperor and Empress; the others were invited guests
and the foreign and German press” [57]. In a
review of the period, August Grisebach wrote for Die Kunst für Alle that the success of the exhibition (with long
queues outside the Academy on Pariser Platz) was also explained by the fact
that it turned into a social event, with a worldly nature. All those in Berlin
who belonged to the upper class participated in it with great fanfare [58].
Kampf explained that the next exhibition, the
one on the French art of the eighteenth century, actually had even diplomatic
reasons. In fact, Berlin was seeking opportunities for rapprochement between the two
countries, which had bad relations not only for bilateral reasons (Alsace and
Lorraine), for geopolitical reasons (France, England and Russia had just
concluded the Triple Entente in
anti-German function), but also for genuinely political considerations (France was
a republic, governed by the radical party, by the most leftist political force at
government in Europe those days, while Germany was an imperial monarchy, ruled
by a liberal-conservative government). These were all sources of tension which,
only in the space of four years, would eventually lead to the outbreak of the First
World War.
“Also the
exhibition of the eighteenth century French art - Kampf wrote - was a great
success. It offered a highly selected collection of the best painters of that
time. I can just mention names like Boucher, Lancret, Watteau, Fragonard,
Latour, Lebrun, David, Chardin, Greuze etc. and the sculptors Pigalle and
Houdon. This exhibition gave me the chance to search the works for the
exhibition at the Duke of Aremberg, the Rothschilds and Dreyfuss, the art collector.
During the preparation, I have often met with the French ambassador in Berlin,
Jules Cambon, who was obviously very interested in the exhibition and supported
me a lot” [59]. As a caveat, it should be immediately
said that the memoirs of Wilhelm von Bode, published in 1930, offered a far
more critical version of Kampf’s interaction with French authorities. According
to the general manager of Berlin's art collections, Kampf acted very
unprofessionally, so that the ambassador Cambon turned to von Bode two months
before the opening of the exhibition, in order to save the event: Kampf had not
been in touch with French authorities for months, had not given care to visit the
ambassador and was suddenly sending out injunctions to owners of public and private
collectors in France, with the pressing request to deliver their works to
Berlin [60].
Kampf’s memoirs continued: “The idea for this exhibition came to the
Emperor, as he was looking for a politically neutral opportunity to get into a
better relationship with France. In his name, I invited to Berlin artists of the
French Academy, like Bonnat, Corwon and Mercié, so that they could participate
in the inauguration of the exhibition. The French ambassador gave a big
reception on this occasion, thanks to which the Emperor visited again, for the
first time in many years, the embassy. He was accompanied by the Empress, the
Crown Prince and Crown Princess. On the inauguration day, the Emperor conferred
honours to important French artists. At the reception, he asked me about their
reaction and I said that they were really delighted” [61].The invited French academic painters belonged to the group that is now
called, disparagingly, “art pompier”
to emphasize their void academism: it is however evident that both the Emperor
and Kampf enjoyed the painting of Léon Bonnat (1833-1922) and the sculpture of
Antonin Mercié (1845-1916), marking the alignment of academic art circles (involved in the fight vis-à-vis impressionists and avant-garde artists both in
Paris and in Berlin), despite the diplomatic complications between the
countries.
The exhibition of Frederick the Great in 1912 was
also an opportunity to celebrate the art of the Berlin court of the eighteenth
century, with Antoine Pesne (1683-1757), the French artist who became court
painter at the court of Frederick, Daniel Chodowiecki (1726 -1801) and Anton
Graff (1736-1813).
A lost opportunity for
intercultural dialogue: the Exhibition of Fine Arts at the Rome International
Exposition (1911)
In 1911 Kampf was assigned the task of setting up
the German pavilion at the International Exposition of Rome. The event was held
to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the unification of Italy and aimed at
documenting the art produced during that time, both in Italy and abroad. It is
sufficient to browse the book "L'arte mondiale a Roma nel 1911” (The
World Art in Rome in 1911) by Vittorio Pica [62] to realize that the exhibition
brought to Rome an extraordinary collection of modern art as it probably happened in a few
cases only in those years. Besides offering insight about new developments in contemporary
art, the exhibition marked an extraordinary logistical and urbanistic effort
for the city, led in those years by the legendary lord mayor Ernesto Nathan. In
that year, for instance, was also inaugurated the so-called Vittoriano.
The plan shows how the German exhibition was
conceived in order to distribute space to the different German cities. After passing
through the main hall, the visitor encountered first three rooms dedicated to Munich
(moreover, both the architect and the main sculptor were from that city), and
then one for Stuttgart. It followed two rooms for Berlin, one for Dresden and
Karlsruhe each, two for Düsseldorf, and finally two for the rest of Germany
(Weimar, Könisberg, Kassel, Hamburg, Bremen, Frankfurt, Alsace and Lorraine).
Even Vittorio Pica’s comment stressed how - unlike other pavilions - German
art was offering an impression of spatial dispersion of the art schools, which
were unable to find common national themes. And yet, having read for example
the Liebermann correspondence in those years, I would like to stress that Kampf
managed what had not been possible for anybody else: to bring together under
the same Roman sky the works of academics and secessionist artists, using the
pretext of representing the art of German cities and regions, and not the
different schools. There is an indirect testimony in the memories, when Kampf said
that the exhibition was visited by the prince regent accompanied by his wife: “The Prince Regent disliked some paintings by
representatives of a freer approach. He asked me: 'Can you not forbid exposing
things like that?' I objected that every artist must be able to express his
personality and that any ban would generate only martyrs” [64].
There would, therefore, be every reason to
expect to find some essential element of information in the artist's memoirs about
the German, Italian and international artworks exhibited in Rome in 1911. Unfortunately, it was not the case. The text reads only: “The
months in Rome were rich in events” [65]. However, he only witnessed events such as the dinner
hosted by King [66], the French ambassador's reception at Palazzo Farnese, and minor
episodes, at least in my opinion: the formal political representation of government at the German pavilion’s inauguration was entrusted to former Chancellor Bernhard
von Bülow (1849-1929), who held a discourse without substance, but turned out to
be a great entertainer of the guests [67]; Count Enrico San Martino Valperga,
President of the International exhibition, claimed to be invited to the dinner
in honour of the Prince Regent of Germany and Kampf had to add a seat at
the table at the last minute [68].
The memoirs of Kampf seem rather written to
confirm all mutual prejudices between Italians and Germans. Two full pages were
devoted to the inefficiencies encountered during the construction of the
pavilion at Villa Giulia; the German building was so modern from the industrial
point of view to pose problems to local construction companies. The Mannessmann
corporation (another giant of German industry, created in 1890 and failed in
2001) had produced a thirty-meter steel flagpole for the flag; however, thirty
Italian workers were not able to lift it. Mannessmann let come twelve employees
from Germany and the pennant was hoisted [69]. When mounting the sprinkler system in the
pavilion there had been clear technical errors, also due to the attempt of the
local supplier to cheat on materials and their price [70]. Furthermore, during
a fire drill strongly requested by Kampf, the Roman fire brigade had lost
control over water, with the risk that all the works of art would be ruined
[71]. Only the prompt intervention of an English fire brigade in the nearby
British Pavilion had allowed to regain control of the situation [72].
What was Kampf’s world
in the German capital?
It has already been said that Kampf is now a
forgotten artist. Yet it would be wrong to think that he did not have any role
in the artistic Berlin in the years before the First World War. To the
contrary. The reference to the days that the Kampf and Liebermann families spent
together in Florence in 1911 is not accidental. In 1911, Liebermann left the
presidency of the Secession due to controversies; since then, he progressively
moved closer and closer to positions that today are considered - according to a
'modernist reading' of the German art history - as more traditional, in line
with the taste of the so-called Free Secession (Freie Sezession), created in 1914. In 1912 Pechstein exited the
expressionist group of the Bridge (die Brücke),
and had a classicist turning. Therefore, substantial part of the German art
world was on the move, looking for new equilibria, and seeking to anchor itself
to forms which would be more related to the late romantic experience. I think
Kampf played an important role in this direction, not only because he mentioned,
among his acquaintances, the 'giants' of the nineteenth century as Adolf Menzel
[74], his academic colleagues, the leaders of the secession in Munich and
Berlin, and even the young painters (like Hofer and Pechstein [75]), but above all because he sought to
create new intellectual circles to influence the course of art in Berlin.
Along with Ludwig Justi (his former associate
at the Academy and now director of the National Gallery, and therefore guardian
of the nineteenth century German art), in 1914 Kampf in fact created the "Künstler Club", the club of the
artists: “a club of artists and friends
of art. Every two or three weeks there was a meeting or a dinner, which were followed
by informal exchanges of ideas on art matters. The members of this club were Liebermann,
Slevogt, Lederer, Tuaillonn, Gaul, later also Klimsch, the architect Hoffmann, the
musicians Richard Strauss and Engelbert Humperdinck, Professor Wiegand, the
director of the Drama Theatre Max Reinhardt, the art collector and State Councillor
Arnhold, Robert von Mendelssohn and, as founders, Justi and I” [76]. Thinking of the presence of
Richard Strauss in the group, one could imagine that it was the bulwark of a
modernism strongly linked with tradition, which ended up being exploited by
National Socialism. But one cannot excessively simplify: Max Liebermann and
Eduard Arnhold, one of the most important German industrial financing twentieth
century artists, were Jews. Arnhold was the financial sponsor of the journal Kunst und Künstler published by Bruno Cassirer. He bought the ground, edified and donated to the German State the
Villa Massimo in Rome, still hosting today the German Academy in Rome (http://www.villamassimo.de/de). Most probably, what held together this group was really,
probably, a common aesthetic taste and the desire to combine the sense of the
modernity with the one of belonging to traditional social structures. It is not
surprising that that the trauma of the war defeat, five years later, swept away
all hope that this circle would determine the conditions of art development in
Germany.
End of Part Two
NOTES
[40] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben (From my
life), Introduction by August Gotzes, Aachen, Verlag Museumsverein Aachen,
1950, 64 pages and 16 black and white pictures. Quotation at page 26.
[41] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 26
[42] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 26
[43] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 27
[44] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 30
[45] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 30
[46] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 30
[47] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 30
[48] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 40
[49] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 40
[50] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 40
[51] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 43
[52] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 43
[53] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 43
[54] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 31
[55] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 29
[56] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 31
[57] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 32
[58] Grisebach, August, Die Ausstellung englischer
Kunst in Berlin, in: Die Kunst für alle: Malerei, Plastik, Graphik, Architektur
— Year 23.1907-1908, Number 14, 15th April 1908, pages 313-323. See:
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/kfa1907_1908/0349?sid=2abe251e2a033c7df054645ba8fcb95c
http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/kfa1907_1908/0349?sid=2abe251e2a033c7df054645ba8fcb95c
[59] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 33
[60] von Bode, Wilhelm – Mein Leben, Berlin,
Reckendorf, 1930, two pages, pages 205 and 264. Quotation at pages 208-209 of the second
volume. The first volume is available at
https://archive.org/details/meinleben01bode.
The second volume is available at https://archive.org/details/meinleben02bode.
https://archive.org/details/meinleben01bode.
The second volume is available at https://archive.org/details/meinleben02bode.
[61] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted),
p. 33
[62] Pica, Vittorio - L'Arte
mondiale a Roma nel 1911, Bergamo, Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 1913. 504 pages. The original is available
at the internet address:
https://archive.org/stream/lartemondialerom00pica#page/538/mode/2up.
https://archive.org/stream/lartemondialerom00pica#page/538/mode/2up.
[63] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 35
[64] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 37
[65] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 38
[66] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 38
[67] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 37
[68] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 37
[69] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 35
[70] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 36
[71] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 36
[72] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 36
[73] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 38
[74] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 54
[75] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), p. 54
[76] Kampf, Arthur - Aus meinem Leben … (quoted), pp. 51-52
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