DOI Heft:
No. 386 (May 1925)
DOI Artikel:Jessen, Jarno: Norbertine Bresslern-Roth
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21402#0256
NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH
"MORNING." COLOUR WOODCUT
BY NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH
NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH.
BY JARNO JESSEN. 000
ANIMAL presentation is rarely prac-
tised by female artists. It demands
the unfailing eye, the steady hand and
in most cases the dogged wrestling with
elusive facts. Rosa Bonheur and Lucy
Kemp-Welch are exceptional talents, but
we have a good number of superior
woman-portraitists for the domestic
animal. For some years Norbertine
Bresslern-Roth, an artist from Graz in
Styria, has compelled attention by paint-
ings and graphic works which are entirely
dedicated to the animal world. Her
sympathies comprise inhabitants of all
the elements, beasts of prey and innocent
dwellers among leaves and by lakes. All
her works betray an intelligent naturalism.
She records facts rightly analysed and
shrewdly interpreted. She can convince
of an individuality by filling in little
details, or by broad generalisations, and
her strong temperament as well as her
picturesqueness have made her con-
spicuous. Her woodcuts especially have
attracted attention. She has the psycholo-
gist's eye for her models, and we watch
with her the ravenous cruelty of the
panther, the sly greed of the fish-heron
and the shyness of the squirrel. It is
wonderful how her susceptible eye can
discover subtleties, how she can grip
rapid movement by mere hints of outline.
Such art can be photographic and im-
pressionistic, can produce the idyll and
the drama. a a a a a
The artist sometimes impresses, as if
she penetrated like Liljefors into the most
secret hiding-places of her models, yet
only places like zoological gardens and
aquariums are her study-grounds. Prac-
tical considerations have probably led
her to the reproductive arts, and she has
schooled herself much after Japanese teach-
ings. The surface remains her back-
ground, she strives after a poster-like
effect, decorativeness and fine colourism.
But the characteristic feature of the
250
"FISH-HERONS." COLOUR WOODCUT
BY NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH
"MORNING." COLOUR WOODCUT
BY NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH
NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH.
BY JARNO JESSEN. 000
ANIMAL presentation is rarely prac-
tised by female artists. It demands
the unfailing eye, the steady hand and
in most cases the dogged wrestling with
elusive facts. Rosa Bonheur and Lucy
Kemp-Welch are exceptional talents, but
we have a good number of superior
woman-portraitists for the domestic
animal. For some years Norbertine
Bresslern-Roth, an artist from Graz in
Styria, has compelled attention by paint-
ings and graphic works which are entirely
dedicated to the animal world. Her
sympathies comprise inhabitants of all
the elements, beasts of prey and innocent
dwellers among leaves and by lakes. All
her works betray an intelligent naturalism.
She records facts rightly analysed and
shrewdly interpreted. She can convince
of an individuality by filling in little
details, or by broad generalisations, and
her strong temperament as well as her
picturesqueness have made her con-
spicuous. Her woodcuts especially have
attracted attention. She has the psycholo-
gist's eye for her models, and we watch
with her the ravenous cruelty of the
panther, the sly greed of the fish-heron
and the shyness of the squirrel. It is
wonderful how her susceptible eye can
discover subtleties, how she can grip
rapid movement by mere hints of outline.
Such art can be photographic and im-
pressionistic, can produce the idyll and
the drama. a a a a a
The artist sometimes impresses, as if
she penetrated like Liljefors into the most
secret hiding-places of her models, yet
only places like zoological gardens and
aquariums are her study-grounds. Prac-
tical considerations have probably led
her to the reproductive arts, and she has
schooled herself much after Japanese teach-
ings. The surface remains her back-
ground, she strives after a poster-like
effect, decorativeness and fine colourism.
But the characteristic feature of the
250
"FISH-HERONS." COLOUR WOODCUT
BY NORBERTINE BRESSLERN-ROTH