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Stephanie Hollenstein

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Stephanie Hollenstein
(date unknown).

Stephanie Hollenstein (18 July 1886 in Lustenau – 24 May 1944 in Vienna) was an Austrian Expressionist landscape and still-life painter.[1] A member of the Nazi Party, Hollenstein was lesbian[2][3] and tried to defend fellow-artists against charges of degeneracy, though usually without success.[4][5] She was nicknamed Die Schiefmalerin, meaning the Crooked Lady Painter.[6]

Biography

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Hollenstein was born to a peasant farming family in 1886, and initially worked as a cowherd in Lustenau, Vorarlberg.[7] Her first paintings were made at that time, featuring animals and shepherds, with brushes made from animal hair and colors from berries.[6] In 1904, she was admitted with a scholarship to the Königliche Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich,[3][8] on the strength of the drawings she presented as samples.[9] After completing the courses there in 1908 and earning a distinction grade,[7] she opened a small private painting school in Schwabing, which was in operation for two years.[10] In 1913, upon the recommendation of Franz von Defregger, she was awarded a scholarship that enabled her to study for a year in Italy.[11]

World War I

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Hollenstein in World War I.
Portrait of
Dr. Franziska Groß.

At the beginning of World War I, in Summer 1914, she completed a Red Cross Nursing training course.[6] She then went to Vorarlberg, where she joined the 2nd Dornbirn Battalion, Company II of the Standschützen under the male name "Stephan Hollenstein".[12] She dressed in male clothes[13] and was deployed to the Tyrolean war zone near Bolzano in May 1915.[6] Although her comrades-in-arms were aware of the deception regarding her gender, her superiors did not discover it for several months; in August 1915 she was sent home.[9]

This incident attracted public attention and fame,[14] however, and she was assigned as a war painter for the Austro-Hungarian Army’s "Kriegspressequartier [de]" (War Press Bureau). In that capacity, she was sent to the Italian front[15] on three occasions and, in 1916, was among the first recipients of the Karl Troop Cross. She later received numerous commissions from the Museum of Military History.[11]

After the war, she lived in Vienna with her companion, Franziska Groß (1900-1973), who later became a doctor, and held several exhibitions with the Künstlerhaus Wien, the Vienna Secession and the Hagenbund.[9] Her activities were interrupted for a time in 1928, following an accident that resulted in a double ankle fracture, but she was able to get treatment from Lorenz Böhler, a doctor who is credited with establishing the field of accident surgery.[11] She recovered completely and made extensive travels through Germany and Italy.

Nazi years

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In the 1930s, she was attracted to the "Männlichkeitskult" (Masculinity Cult) and the military ideals promoted by the Fascists. She became a secret member of the Nazi Party (when it was still officially banned in Austria), then rejoined openly after the Anschluss.[11] From that time until 1943, she was chairperson of the "Vereinigung Bildender Künstlerinnen der Reichsgaue der Ostmark" (Association of Women Artists of the Reichsgau of Austria).[9] During her tenure, she defended the sculptor, Albert Bechtold [de], and others against charges that their art was "Degenerate"; unsuccessfully for the most part. She remained openly lesbian[3] and her own same-sex desire was tolerated as long as it did not cause a public sensation.[16] An application for the title of "Professor" was denied on the grounds that she was a strictly local artist whose work often did not set a good example.

She resigned her position for health reasons. The following year, she suffered a heart attack and died shortly after. Her remains were returned to Lustenau for burial. A municipal art gallery named in her honor was opened in 1971, which houses most of her extant work (1,114 numbered items).[7][9]

Selected paintings

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References

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  1. ^ Finger, Anke; Shoults, Julie (2023-08-07). Women in German Expressionism: Gender, Sexuality, Activism. University of Michigan Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-472-90367-2.
  2. ^ Granda, David (February 5, 2019). "Las otras Klimt salen del ostracismo" [The other Klimt women emerge from ostracism]. El País (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 3 October 2023. Retrieved 3 October 2023. Vanguardista, lesbiana y nazi ("Avant-garde, lesbian and Nazi")
  3. ^ a b c Bradley, Kimberly (April 19, 2019). "A Show in Vienna Seeks to Highlight the Female Artists of Austria's Golden Age. Here Are 5 Women That Art History Forgot". Artnet. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  4. ^ Kain, Evelyn (Spring–Summer 2001). "Stephanie Hollenstein: Painter, Patriot, Paradox". Woman's Art Journal. 22 (1): 27–33. doi:10.2307/1358728. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 1358728. OCLC 1319814818.
  5. ^ Morowitz, Laura (2023). Art, Exhibition and Erasure in Nazi Vienna (1st ed.). England, UK: Routledge. p. 49. ISBN 978-1032405889.
  6. ^ a b c d Brandow-Faller, Megan (2013). "Tenuous Mitschwestern: The Mobilization of Vienna's Women Artists and the Interwar Splintering of Austrian Frauenkunst". Austrian Studies. 21: 142–162. doi:10.5699/austrianstudies.21.2013.0142. ISSN 1350-7532. JSTOR 10.5699/austrianstudies.21.2013.0142.
  7. ^ a b c Kain, Evelyn (2002-06-22). "Problematic patriotism: Stephanie Hollenstein's World War I drawings and paintings". Minerva: Quarterly Report on Women and the Military. 20 (2): 1–16.
  8. ^ Krasny, Elke (2008). Stadt und Frauen: eine andere Topographie von Wien (in German). Wienbibliothek im Rathaus. p. 202. ISBN 978-3-902517-78-4.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Die sammlung "Stephanie Hollenstein"" [The "Stephanie Hollenstein" Collection]. Galerie Hollenstein (in German). Archived from the original on August 1, 2015. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  10. ^ Johnson, Julie M. (2012-05-15). The Memory Factory: The Forgotten Women Artists of Vienna 1900. Purdue University Press. p. 381. ISBN 978-1-61249-203-2.
  11. ^ a b c d Amann, Brynhild (2005). "Stephanie Hollenstein". Neue Ordnung (in German). No. 4. Ares Verlag. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  12. ^ Greer, Germaine (2001-06-02). The Obstacle Race: The Fortunes of Women Painters and Their Work. I. B. Tauris. p. 346. ISBN 978-1-86064-677-5.
  13. ^ Fachverband Homosexualität und Geschichte e.V. (2017-08-28). Invertito. Jahrbuch für die Geschichte der Homosexualitäten / Invertito. 18. Jahrgang 2016 (in German). Männerschwarm Verlag. p. 182. ISBN 978-3-86300-242-8.
  14. ^ Strunz, Gunnar (2022). Vorarlberg: Mit Bregenzerwald, Großem Walsertal, Arlberg und Montafon (in German). Trescher Verlag. p. 79. ISBN 978-3-89794-616-3.
  15. ^ Roe, Francesca. (2004) "Landscapes of Glory and Grief: Representations of the Italian Front and Its Topography in the Art of Stephanie Hollenstein and Albin Egger-Liennz, and the Poetry of Gustav Heinse." PhD dissertation, University of Bristol.
  16. ^ Pettinger, Jürgen (2023-10-02). DOROTHEA: Queere Heldin unterm Hakenkreuz (in German). Verlag Kremayr & Scheriau. ISBN 978-3-218-01405-2.

Further reading

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  • Willi Oberfrank, Helmut Gassner: Stephanie Hollenstein. 1886–1944 (exhibition catalog). Marktgemeinde Lustenau, 1994, ISBN 3-900954-03-8.
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