{"id":6868,"date":"2010-03-05T03:46:49","date_gmt":"2010-03-05T02:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=6868"},"modified":"2011-01-07T12:13:27","modified_gmt":"2011-01-07T12:13:27","slug":"jugend-1896","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2010\/03\/05\/jugend-1896\/","title":{"rendered":"Jugend, 1896"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jugend-96-05.jpg\"<\/p>\n

So, then, I’ve now looked through several thousand pages of Jugend<\/em> magazine and a few things have become apparent. If you’re interested in fin de si\u00e8cle<\/em> art and design then all the most interesting material is in the first four years of the magazine’s run, from 1896 on. After 1900 there are still examples of the florid Art Nouveau motifs which filled their earlier pages but the overall style becomes progressively dull, with endless pictures of German towns and hearty country folk. The magazine also begins to reflect an obviously belligerent mood in the country as a whole, pictures of military types and patriotic themes proliferate and the satirical material grows overtly aggressive towards neighbouring nations. Racist cartoons are to be expected\u2014British magazines of the period are much the same\u2014but there’s also a vicious antisemitism boiling away in later issues of Jugend<\/em> which creates a toxic mix when seen beside the war-mongering on display elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-01.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Politics aside, these magazines are still a revelation. Pan<\/em> magazine was being published at the same time (its entire run is also available<\/a> in the Heidelberg archives) and is the finer journal if it’s art you’re interested in. But Jugend<\/em>, being a lighter read, contains a wealth of strange and surprising illustrations. Many are naive or just plain bad, of course, but some are quite remarkable. This is the first of a number of posts I’ll make which highlight illustrations that catch my eye. I’ll also be making some follow-up posts about individual artists as the magazine has been a great introduction to minor illustrators I’ve not come across before. This first post is from the two volumes covering 1896 which can be browsed and downloaded here<\/a> and here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-02.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The silhouette is one of many illustrations by Fidus, aka Hugo H\u00f6ppener (1868\u20131948), whose obsession with nudity and connections with German naturist groups gained him his nickname when he received a short prison sentence for being nude in public. His clear line work, decorative borders and naturist obsession make his drawings stand out from his contemporaries so it’s unfortunate that his spiritual concerns (he was also a Theosophist) led him towards the Nazis in later years. As Jugend<\/em> grows more mundane Fidus is one of the few artists to keep the fin de si\u00e8cle<\/em> spirit alive.<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-03.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Early issues feature many mermaids and sirens such as this one by Hugo Freiherr von Habermann.<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-04.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-06.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-07.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-08.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-09.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-10.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-11.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-12.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Elfen-Liebe<\/em> (Elf-Love?). I don’t know whether the Franz Kupka credited here is the Symbolist painter Franti\u0161ek Kupka<\/a> but it’s likely given that the Czech artist worked as an illustrator before his paintings gained prominence.<\/p>\n

\"jugend-96-13.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The figures in this drawing are rather bad but it’s worthy of note for being another curious picture by the obscure Carl Schmidt-Helmbrechts whose work has been featured here before<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The illustrators archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Jugend Magazine revisited<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Great God Pan<\/a>
\n\u2022 Jugend Magazine<\/a>
\n\u2022 Empusa<\/a>
\n\u2022 Kafka and Kupka<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, then, I’ve now looked through several thousand pages of Jugend magazine and a few things have become apparent. If you’re interested in fin de si\u00e8cle art and design then all the most interesting material is in the first four years of the magazine’s run, from 1896 on. After 1900 there are still examples of … Continue reading “Jugend, 1896”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[58,2,30,4,48,43,45],"tags":[2142,1048,136,1049,1013,3331,199],"class_list":["post-6868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-nouveau","category-art","category-black-white","category-design","category-illustrators","category-magazines","category-symbolists","tag-carl-schmidt-helmbrechts","tag-fidus","tag-fin-de-siecle","tag-frantisek-kupka","tag-franz-kafka","tag-hugo-hoppener","tag-jugend"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-1MM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6868\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}