The artist Max Nehrling (Posen 1887 – 1957 Weimar) appeared to have been forgotten even in Weimar, the city in which he lived and worked for decades. There was little to point the way to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen zu Weimar (Weimar Art Collections, now part of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar), which owns an ornamental study by Nehrling dating from his student days at the Großherzoglich Sächsischen Kunstgewerbeschule (Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts) directed by Henry van de Velde. This, along with a collection of student works, was donated to the Großherzogliches Museum für Kunst und Kunstgewerbe (Grand Ducal Museum of Arts and Crafts) in 1915. Three further pieces owned by the museum suggest that Nehrling was a conservative artist in the tradition of the Weimar School of Painting: The watercolour “Tallandschaft im Frühling” (1925) and the paintings “Hohe Rhön” (1939) and “Ilmtal bei Taubach” (1955). For this reason, even after the publication of “Die Studierenden am Bauhaus” (1990) and “Die Meisterratsprotokolle des Staatlichen Bauhauses Weimar 1919-1925” (2001), no research into Nehrling was undertaken.
But it was no coincidence that the artist’s son, musicologist Dr. Hans Nehrling, approached the custodian of the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar in the street in 2003 and invited him to his home to see his father’s artistic estate. Thousands of paintings, drawings, printed graphics, documents, original photographs and works by artist friends, along with a kitchen by the Bauhaus master of works Josef Zachmann, were squeezed into the two-room rental flat. It soon became evident that Max Nehrling’s collection presented a unique record of art education in Weimar from 1900 to 1926: Work from lessons at the Fürstliche freie Zeichenschule Weimar (free drawing school), from an apprenticeship in lithography, from the school of arts and crafts and school of art in Weimar, the Staatliche Bauhaus and the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Kunst (Weimar Institute of Fine Arts). However, it was soon clear that the Weimar Art Collections could not acquire the whole estate. The negotiations that followed, with the Stadtmuseum Weimar among others, continued for a full decade.
Only after Hans Nehrling’s death was the heiress Maximiliane Itta able to fulfil his legacy. In 2013 she donated two partial collections to the Klassik Stiftung Weimar with its Bauhaus Museum and the Stadtmuseum Weimar and placed numerous other works on the art market in the hands of Galerie Hebecker in Weimar. The donation to the Klassik Stiftung Weimar (Weimar Classics Foundation) comprises 330 exhibits. For the first time, a representative selection of these will be on show from 14 August to 1 November 2015 in the Haus Am Horn. This unique prototype and experimental building by the Bauhaus in Weimar (UNESCO World Cultural Heritage), which is managed by the Circle of Friends of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, provides an ideal architectural setting for the exhibition.
One of the exhibition highlights is the sole surviving hat from a Bauhaus party in Weimar, a simple “Chinese hat” dating from around 1920, made from card and combining pieces of coloured paper affixed with glue and abstract-organic ink brush drawings. Pages from the preliminary course and life drawing lessons under the tutelage of Johannes Itten document Nehrling’s endeavours to integrate modern anti-academic elements in his work. Nehrling was however also influenced by Lyonel Feininger’s annotated sketches from nature, which were exhibited in the Bauhaus in September 1919. From 1920 Nehrling produced numerous charcoal drawings of landscapes in the Rhoen region, specifically of the Föhlritz near Dermbach area, where Nehrling revived his pre-war days in his artists’ colony with fellow students. The portrait of his friend Rudolf Riege, an oil painting from 1919, shows the influence of a shift towards Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) in the early Bauhaus.
Endowments often also convey cultural history: Documents such as the elaborate diploma issued in 1919 by the Großherzoglich Sächsischen Kunstgewerbeschule, the less formal official document from the Reich Chamber of Culture of 1942, which lists Nehrling only as a number due to a paucity of art production, and a letter from the association of visual artists (VBK), which congratulates Nehrling on the pension awarded to him by the GDR government for his artistic lifework.
Endowments frequently provide insights into personal networks and friendships with other artists. Nehrling’s teacher Otto Dorfner is represented by hand bound books, Walther Klemm, Gerhard Marcks and fellow students Walter Determann, Erich Glas, Rudolf Riege and Karl Peter Röhl by printed graphics. The collection also includes work by esteemed artists, for example a sculpture by Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1914), a large gouache by Christian Rohlfs (1918) and printed graphics by Beckmann and Heckel. Finally, a reference library and favourite books distinguished by handmade bindings reveal the artist’s spiritual universe: Cranach, Turner and classical modernism.
As in Max Nehrling’s case, the descendants of an artist are often responsible for discovering their ancestor’s lifework. Thanks to their interest, efforts and not least their generosity, museums and archives benefit from donations of work by little known or forgotten artists. Acquisitions and loans, but donations above all, add to the number and the diversity of collections. Had Max Nehrling’s son not spoken to the custodian of the Bauhaus Museum in Weimar and taken him to see his father’s wonderful work, the public would never have had a chance to see the former Bauhaus student’s paintings. These works are featured in the 100-page exhibition catalogue, which includes 90 colour plates(€ 9,90, ISBN 3744301877).