Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack drawings and prints

PXA 7900

fonds

1939-1956

Graphic Materials, Drawings, Prints

9682987

129 drawings (on 94 sheets) - pencil, ink, watercolour - 38 x 28 cm or smaller
3 prints - woodcut - 36 x 26 cm or smaller

Ludwig Johann Hirschfeld-Mack was born on 11 July 1893 in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany. He studied at the Bauhaus art school between 1919 and 1924, and, in the winter of 1922-1923, he conducted an unofficial course on colour, attended by Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. He then taught at various art schools until they were closed by the Nazis, and left Germany in 1936 for Britain. In 1940, he was deported to Australia as an enemy alien on the HMT Dunera, and was subsequently interned at camps in Hay and Orange, New South Wales, and Tatura, Victoria. Whilst there, he taught drawing classes in the camp university. In April 1942, his release was arranged by Sir James Darling, headmaster of Geelong Church of England Grammar School, who subsequently appointed him as art master from 1942 to 1957. His artworks were exhibited at the University of Melbourne in 1946 and the Peter Bray Gallery in 1953. He married twice, firstly to Elenor Wirth (1895-1953) on 22 November 1917 in Hesse, Germany, with whom he had three daughters, and later to Olive Harrison Russell (d.1986) on 4 January 1955 in Glenhuntly, Melbourne. He died on 7 January 1965 in Allambie Heights, Sydney.

References:
Australian Dictionary of Biography. "Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893-1965)". Accessed 23 October 2024. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hirschfeldmack-ludwig-10510

Hesse, Germany, Marriages 1849-1930. Accessed 23 October 2024. https://www.ancestrylibrary.com.au/imageviewer/collections/61118/images/47107_B302752-00278

Deutscher and Hackett. Portrait of Elenor, 1921. Accessed 23 October 2024. https://www.deutscherandhackett.com/auction/lot/portrait-elenor-1921

Ryerson Index. "Olive Russell". Accessed 23 October 2024. https://ryersonindex.org/search.php

Collection being offered on behalf of Kaj Delugan, grandson of Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack

129 drawings and watercolours (on 94 sheets), and 3 woodcut prints, created by Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack between 1939 and 1956.

60 drawings (on 40 sheets) date from Hirschfeld-Mack's internment at camps in Tatura and Hay, including portraits and profile studies of men and women; internees gardening, playing sport, reading, praying and smoking; animals including cats and pigs; abstract and anthropomorphic figures.

69 drawings and watercolours (on 54 sheets) of female nudes and life studies, which may have been drawn from memory during his internment, or in the period afterwards when Hirschfeld-Mack was art master at Geelong Church of England Grammar School from 1942 to 1957. 3 woodcut prints of scenes in Geelong likely also date from this period.

Drawings housed in groups according to year, based on inscriptions.

In copyright:
Copyright holder:: Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder

Many portrait and profile drawings inscribed in lower left or right corner, "Hay 1940" ; "Tatura 1941", etc.

Date range based on drawing inscriptions.