Alfred Sohn-Rethel (painter)

Alfred Sohn-Rethel (8 February 1875 – 10 December 1958) was a German Modernist painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting art movement. He was active in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Paris, and Barbizon.

Alfred Sohn-Rethel
Alfred Sohn-Rethel, Self-portrait (c. 1899)
Born(1875-02-08)8 February 1875
Düsseldorf, German Empire
Died10 December 1958(1958-12-10) (aged 83)
Tübingen, West Germany
EducationKunstakademie Düsseldorf
Spouse(s)Anna Julie Michels
Children3
Parents
RelativesOtto Sohn-Rethel (sibling)
Karli Sohn-Rethel (sibling)
Werner Heuser (brother-in-law)

Biography

Alfred Sohn-Rethel was born 8 February 1875 to painters Else Sohn-Rethel (née Rethel) and Karl Rudolf Sohn and was raised in Düsseldorf, Germany.[1] He came from a family of painters many of which were of the Düsseldorf school of painting, his maternal grandfather was history painter Alfred Rethel, his maternal great grandfather was miniature painter and portraitist, August Grahl. His paternal grandfather was Karl Ferdinand Sohn.

He attended Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Art Academy) in May 1888, and studied with artists Eduard von Gebhardt, Hugo Crola, Adolf Schill, and Johann Peter Theodor Janssen.

In 1893, Sohn-Rethel met his future spouse, Anna Julie Michels while staying Lake Garda. They married on October 8, 1896 in Hanover, Germany. He moved in 1897 to Paris, which changed his painting style. On December 8, 1897, his eldest child Anna Clara Marie Elisabeth "Lissi" Sohn-Rethel was born. His other two children included, Marxist economist and philosopher Alfred Sohn-Rethel (1899–1990), and painter and actor Hans-Joachim Sohn-Rethel (1905–1955).

In 1909, Alfred Sohn-Rethel co-founded the Sonderbund group with other Düsseldorf painters, which included Julius Bretz, Max Clarenbach, August Deusser, Walter Ophey, Wilhelm Schmurr,[2] and his brothers Otto Sohn-Rethel and Karli Sohn-Rethel. They held their first exhibition in May 1908 and brought German painting to the French Impressionists. He was a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund (Association of German Artists).[3]

He died in Tübingen, Germany on 10 December 1958.

Alfred Sohn-Rethel work is in various public museum collections including Städel Museum,[4] the British Museum,[5] Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya,[6] among others.

References
  1. Böttcher, Kirsten (2016-06-01). "Else Sohn-Rethels Memoiren, Das Turbulente Leben einer Künstlergattin" [Else Sohn-Rethel's Memoirs, The Turbulent Life of an Artist's Wife]. Radio Bayern 2, Kultur. Archived from the original on 2016-08-16. Retrieved 2020-08-09.
  2. Selz, Peter (1957). German Expressionist Painting. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. p. 246. LCCN 57-10501.
  3. "Mitglieder ab 1903, Ordentliche Mitglieder des Deutschen Künstlerbundes". Deutschen Künstlerbundes. Retrieved 2020-08-11.
  4. "Alfred Sohn-Rethel". Städel Museum Digital Collection. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  5. "Collections Online, Alfred Sohn-Rethel". British Museum. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
  6. "Detail of a Paris theatre". Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya. Retrieved 2020-08-10.
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