Julie Wolfthorn (Thorn 1864 - 1944 Theresienstadt)
"Waldhexe" ("Witch of the Woods")
circa 1899
oil on canvas
39,8 x 32,6 cm (15 5/8 x 12 7/8 in.) (without frame)
48,7 x 40,5 cm (framed dimensions)
Signed lower left: J. Wolfthorn
Conserved by Andrea Rothe (formerly, Senior Conservator of Paintings, Getty Museum) and Jeanne McKee-Rothe (formerly, Conservator, Norton Simon Museum).
Catalogue raisonne: Carstensen 39 (WVZ 39).
Also known as “Mädchen mit blaugrünen
Augen” ("Girl with Blue-Green Eyes"); "Hexchen" ("Little Witch"); "Die Waldfee" ("The Forest Fairy"); "Hexenwald"
EXHIBITION HISTORY:
" 'Meine Bilder sind wie meine Kinder' – Julie Wolfthorn," Zehntscheune, Freden (Leine), Germany (on the occasion of the 19th Fredener Musiktage), 2009
"'Sie sind keine Randnotiz!' Käthe Kollwitz und ihre Kolleginnen in der Berliner Secession, 1898-1913," Museum Schlösschen im Hofgarten, Wertheim, September-November 2012
"Julie Wolfthorn -- 'Mit Pinsel und Palette die Welt erobern'," Barkenhoff, Heinrich-Vogeler-Museum, Worpswede, Germany, June-October 2013
"Nur das Talent... Käthe Kollwitz und die Frauen der Berliner Secession," Herbert Gerisch Stiftung, Neumünster, Germany, November 2013-April 2014
"Julie Wolfthorn: Der Mythos von Ferch -- das Paradies auf Erden," Museum der Havelländischen Malerkolonie, Ferch, Germany, July 16-October 30, 2016
"Julie Wolfthorn(1864-1944): Eine fast vergessene Künstlerin," Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop, Ostseebad Ahrenshoop, Germany, November 10, 2019-February 23, 2020
"Göttinnen des Jugendstils" ["Goddesses of Art Nouveau"], Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, December 18, 2021-September 11, 2022
"Ein Teil von uns. Deutsch-jüdische Geschichten aus Niedersachsen" ["Part of us. German-Jewish Stories from Lower Saxony"], Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, from October 2022 to March 2023
"Göttinnen des Jugendstils" ["Goddesses of Art Nouveau"], Braunschweigisches Landesmuseum, March 29, 2023-September 10, 2023
from September 2023, on long-term loan to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen [State Art Collections] Dresden for exhibition in the Klingersaal [Klinger Hall] of the Albertinum, Dresden's museum of modern art
"Moderne Frauen / Women's Art Rising: Künstlerinnen des Fin de Siècle [Female Artists of the Fin de Siècle]," Albertinum, Dresden, November 12, 2024-March 9, 2025.
PUBLICATION HISTORY:
Heike Carstensen, Leben und Werk der Malerin und Graphikerin Julie Wolfthorn (1864-1944), Rekonstruktion eines Künstlerinnenlebens (Marburg: Tectum Verlag, 2011), pgs. 196-197 and ill. pg. 482, WVZ 39 (the catalogue raisonne).
Ulrike Wolff-Thomsen and Jörg Paczkowski, eds., "Sie sind keine Randnotiz!" Käthe Kollwitz und ihre Kolleginnen in der Berliner Secession, 1898-1913 (Heide : Boyens, c. 2012), cover photo and ill. pg. 71.
Ilka Wonschik, "Es war wohl ein anderer Stern, auf dem wir lebten ...," Künstlerinnen in Theresienstadt (Berlin: Hentrich & Hentrich, 2014), ill. 10, pg. 48.
Heike Carstensen, Julie Wolfthorn: Der Mythos von Ferch -- das Paradies auf Erden (Ferch: Museum der Havelländischen Malerkolonie, 2016), ill. 19, pg. 56.
Nadja Grintzewitsch und Dr. Constanze Jaiser, eds., Jeder Mensch hat einen Namen: Gedenken an die ermordeten Juden Europas (Berlin: Herausgegeben von Foerderkreis Denkmal fuer die ermordeten Juden Europas, 2016), ill. pg. 43 [Nadja Grintzewitsch and Dr. Constanze Jaiser, eds., Everyone Has a Name: Remembering the Murdered Jews of Europe (Berlin: Association for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, 2016), ill. pg. 43].
Dr. Natalie Gutgesell, Dora Hitz: Fränkische Künstlerin, rumänische Hofmalerin, europäische Avantgardistin (Halle (Saale): Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2019), ill. 201, pg. 189 ("eines ihrer bekanntesten Werke" ["one of her most famous works"]).
Heike Carstensen, Julie Wolfthorn: Mit Pinsel und Palette bewaffnet will Ich mir die Welt erobern (Berlin and Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich Verlag, 2020) (Jüdische Miniaturen series), pgs. 25 and 41, ill. 12 (as "Waldhexe" or "Hexchen").
Wim Hupperetz, et al., eds., Göttinnen des Jugendstils [Goddesses of Art Nouveau](Zwolle, Netherlands: WBOOKS, 2021) (German-language edition), ill. pg. 173.
"Schau: Die 'Waldhexe' und die Jugendstil-Göttinnen," Zeit Online, December 2, 2021, illustrated.
"Schau: Die 'Waldhexe' und die Jugendstil-Göttinnen," Stern, December 2, 2021, illustrated.
Birgit Möthrath, "Fee oder Furie: Die Schau 'Göttinnen des Jugendstils' in Karlsruhe," Die Rheinpfalz, December 17, 2021, illustrated.
Andreas Dehmer, "Sammlerstücke: Julie Wolfthorns 'Waldhexe' im Klingersaal," Dresdener Kunstblätter 68 (2024), pgs. 34-35, ill. at 2 and 35.
Andreas Dehmer, Moderne Frauen: Künstlerinnen des Fin de Siècle im Albertinum (Dresden: Sandstein Verlag, 2024), cover ill. and ill. at pgs. 32 and 34.
August, Ein Magazin der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Issue 2-2024, cover ill.
DISCUSSION:
Perhaps the most beguiling painting in The Daulton Collection: “Witch of the Woods” [“Waldhexe”], by Julie Wolfthorn (1864-1944). A co-founder of the Berlin Secession in 1898, Julie Wolfthorn was one of the leading modern artists in Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She then drifted into obscurity, forgotten by the history of art, only to be rediscovered in recent years. “Witch of the Woods” is one of her masterpieces.
From a review of the Worpswede exhibition in 2013:
"Ein Höhepunkt der Ausstellung ist Julie Wolfthorns „Mädchen mit blaugrünen Augen“ (1899), in dem in Anlehnung an Symbolismus und Jugendstil eine besonders eindringliche, zugleich intime und diskrete Darstellung junger Weiblichkeit gelingt. Die zart gezeichneten Züge des Mädchens bringen Offenheit, Neugier, Zugewandtheit und Souveränität zum Ausdruck. Wenn sich erotische Konnotationen aus diesem Bildnis herauslesen lassen, dann sind sie von selbstbewusster Weiblichkeit bestimmt. Der Blick des Mädchens dürfte jene männliche Schaulust abprallen lassen, die vorzugsweise Maler zu Wolf thorns Zeiten bedienen." "Berlins Porträtistin," Kreiszeitung, 20 June 2013.
loose English translation:
"A highlight of the exhibition is Julie Wolfthorn's 'Girl with Blue-Green Eyes' (1899), in which, based on Symbolism and Art Nouveau, a particularly powerful, yet intimate and discreet depiction of young femininity succeeds. The girl's delicately drawn features express openness, curiosity, affection and sovereignty. If erotic connotations can be read from this portrait, then they are determined by self-confident femininity. The girl's gaze is likely to deflect that male inquisitiveness that painters in Wolfthorn's day tended to cater to." "Berlins Porträtistin," Kreiszeitung, 20 June 2013.
" 'Little girls must not be so wild – little girls must not climb trees – little girls must take care of their clothes' – all these standardizing ideas of the turn of the century before last, which Fanny Gräfin zu Reventlow describes in her novel 'Ellen Olestjerne,' are nonchalantly overturned by this mischievously smiling, self-confident forest creature with her unruly, loose hair peering out of a dense bush. This painting of a 'Witch of the Woods' by the Jewish painter Julie Wolfthorn already caused a stir around 1900: 'Miss Wolfthorn has masterfully succeeded in capturing the essence of the irritating restlessness, the elements of the demon in the modern woman.' (The Studio). The painting has found a congenial home in the Albertinum as a loan from the @jcdaulton Collection since 2023. It is currently the central painting of the presentation 'Modern Women / Women’s Art Rising. Female Artists of the Fin de Siècle.' And on 16.11. at 19:30 the focus of the 305th Begegnung der Künste in the Lichthof." albertinum.skd Instagram post, November 15, 2024.
