Capturing History

 

 

 

Traffic Bridge and Rotary Park with the Blairmore Ring, ca.1980

As Saskatoon lost more of its history today, looking at the vast Stehwien collection, one is reminded that not only an artist's works are preserved, but also images of significant landmarks. The Saskatoon skyline has changed over the years, but mostly in expansion - new buildings, new bridges. Today the removal of more of the Victoria Bridge, or the Traffic Bridge, has added more historical value to these 'City of Bridges' sketches by Fritz.

Saskatoon Skyline 1969 (Have the limited edition prints just gone up in value? Still a few for sale)

Not just city skylines are changing, the prairie landscape has also seen the tearing down of many of the much loved old wooden grain elevators. Paintings and photos of these have become classics.

Global Collections

Stehwien and more, art collection at the Dinnendahl house in Melbourne, Australia

Season's Greetings to all family and friends! It's heartwarming to see how the Fritz Stehwien paintings are treasured around the globe. Fritz always loved to see how the works were incorporated into owner's surroundings. Some friends and family had their walls or offices full, while others treasure one or two favorites.

Eberhard, around 1950

A recent visit to our friend who helped us escape, and helped many many paintings survive the 40 plus years of communist government, revealed a large number of Stehwiens throughout the house. We are eternally grateful, Eberhard!!

Sketching Loved Ones

Solomon, who apparently never sat still, looking absolutely lovable!

Once in a while an email arrives from friends and family who are remembering when Fritz sketched their loved ones. Thank you for sharing these, as the database of 'If you own a Fritz Stehwien' continues to grow.

The next generation.
Young Thomas now has a portrait of his Papa Andy as a young boy in his room.

Relatives Edith & Peter visiting from far-away Canada, back in 1964

Hometown Halle

This year on October 3rd, most of the Stehwien family is celebrating 47 years in Canada - with many memories (and paintings!) created. Everyone is well established, although the old addage of “you can take the boy out of the country, but not the country out of the boy” still holds true.

Stehwien family hometown of Halle/Saale, 65 years ago. This oil on canvas painting was discovered to be on the back of the painting below.

The irony of the date of reunification of the two Germanys that have been home, is bittersweet:
October 3rd is the very day the family of six began the journey across the ocean to emigrate. Who would have thought that exactly 22 years later, there may not have been a reason to leave? 

 

Halle Trotha, Oil on canvas, 1949

An artist and his art within the art

Large oil painting of Oskar Barthold with two of his marionettes.

As another anniversary of immigrating to Canada approaches, thoughts have turned to Fritz's father-in-law, the late German puppeteer and artist, Oskar Barthold. When Fritz met his future wife at the art academy in Halle, in the late 1940s, she had been working with her father at his Marionettenbühne Halle, as they performed many puppet plays for adults and for children.
Read more here:
waltraudestehwien.blogspot.ca/

1940s marionettes, created by Oskar Barthold, linolcut by Fritz

More Barthold marionettes, sketched by Fritz Stehwien

Rediscovering old paintings of these marionettes is more than fascinating: It combines two very different artists in one and at the same time, serves as a record of how many puppets were part of the very successful theater. Only a few are still in the family's possession and they have quite a story to tell. The story of how they 'lived' and travelled all the way to Canada, escaping political turmoil in postwar Germany, certainly adds extra mystique to the marionettes and the works that depict them.

Reflections on Fritz's 101st birthday

As an established artist in Saskatoon, Canada

There are many self portraits in the archives - interesting to see and informative on the historical side of things. Certainly the 'starving artist' situation shines through. To today's generation, it may appear that the drive to create was overpoweringly strong - which it was - but the lack of materials comes through every bit as much. Almost amusing, although at the same time a bit heart breaking, to find some very good sketches on bad materials - tape marks, poor quality onion skin and even wrapping paper with advertising on it.

As a free lance artist in western Germany

As a new art academy graduate in eastern Germany

Not so cold in January

 On a recent trip to southern Germany, more research revealed the location of some favorite watercolours. For many years, it seemed like the idyllic old mills were of the one or two known ones in the area, but the visit resulted in some wonderful surprises.

A favorite watercolour of an old style mill.

Going for walk on green grass in January was one thing, but having an old school friend as a personal tour guide to help with the painting location research was even better.

On other visits, it was obvious that things were changing in the old neighborhoods, even the small river had been moved to run parallel to a major road. So the former old mills don't necessarily have the rivers running past them anymore. There are streets or parking lots instead. And much larger trees and bushes.

Fritz rarely labelled his paintings, so to find out that these watercolors are depicting the Daetzinger Getreidemuehle was quite exciting. As was finding it still standing, even though the village had expanded right up to it and the river has been relocated.

Visit to the Daetzinger Getreidemuehle in January 2015.

The same mill, which had not been apparent before this trip.

Celebrating the freedom to travel back home

Barbara testing the presentation before the Fall of the Berlin Wall event

For that unbelievable event of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, there was a unique opportunity to give a presentation of how it all affected Fritz and his family, on this 25th anniversary. Shown in the photo is the slide where Fritz unpacks the paintings he thought he may never see again. These two paintings were on display at the Saskatchewan German Council celebration on November 9th, in Saskatoon.

100th Birthday

  In honour of this 100th birthday, the family is re-releasing the 'Retrospective' booklet through www.LandscapeArtPublishing.ca

The Stehwien family house & workshop where Fritz was born 100 years ago
 - sketched at age 13

Mostly unchanged Stehwien family house in 2013,
visited by daughter and grand-daughter.

Finding old Motifs

Hometown church and graveyard - sketched in 1929, at age 15

Miltern church on a hot day in July 2013

Part of the trip to Poland included checking out the old home town and area. Hard to describe, but after having seen Fritz's early sketches for so many years, it was fascinating to be in the actual location! To walk around, look around, and to feel the history.
 

Windmill, formerly at Miltern - sketched at age 16

The Miltern windmill was torn down many years ago, but there are still a number of them in the area.
 

Windmill at Jericho near Miltern, 2013

Nearby Tangermuende, 1928 - sketched at age 14

View of Tangermuende now

Nearby historic Tangermuende seems unchanged in the many years since
Fritz lived in the area.

Trip to Poland

Welcome at the war museum in Torun Poland

Of the many surviving original sketches from the battle front in Russia, the discovery that Fritz was  held as Russian prisoner of war in Torun, Poland, came as a surprise. Taking a trip there led to further research, and the escape story is nearly complete, one year later.

The story is ready to be included in a publication by two very dedicated men in Torun: Pawel who keeps a blog on former prisoner stories (and who speaks Polish and English), and Piotr, who has an amazing collection of POW artifacts from the former prison camps in the area (and who speaks Polish and German). Communication has been fun, since most visitors don't speak Polish. Piotr has set up a museum that holds many stories, in the basement of a high school. The Fritz story is now included, and seeing the artifacts made it a bit easier to imagine what being in a Russian war prison was like, and what drove so many men to go to amazing lengths to escape.

War museum visit in Torun, Poland

A small clue leads to large travels

Fritz's war stories were few and his sketches and paintings somehow filter out the horrors of the frozen battles at the Russian front. Amazingly, there are quite a number of originals that survive today and continue to tell stories of the past. The winter landscapes are reminders of the striking similarities of the beauty of harsh winters in Belarus and Saskatchewan (see blog entry of Feb 2012), but the portraits tell a more human story. And so it was that a tiny signature on a portrait of a fellow soldier lead to some surprising facts about the end-of-war whereabouts of Fritz as a Russion prisoner of war (POW).

Detail of signature enlarged, showing a date of March 28, 1945

Deciphered and unabbreviated: 'Gezeichnet von Fritz Stehwien, am 28. März 1945, im Gefangenen Lager Thorn'
Translated: Sketched by Fritz Stehwien, on March 28, 1945, in the POW camp at Thorn.



This turned out to be the only real clue as to exactly where this POW camp actually was. With the help of the Internet, it didn't take too long to find out that the Thorn POW camp was in today's Torun, in Poland. Not in Russia at all, as was presumed, from the few and fragmented stories that Fritz did tell.

This new clue had to be worth a journey to Europe! Retracing some of the paths that Fritz took with his 'Rolle', that forever roll of canvas he carried, has become part of the passion of the large documentation anyway, so why not head out right this summer.

99th Birthday

Large Self Portrait, late 1940s

If Fritz were alive today, he likely would still be passionately painting, sketching and finding that perfect motif. And with that critical look, constantly striving to improve on his work.

Summertime and the Outdoor Studio

Fritz using his VW as an easel

Sketching downtown Calgary with grandson looking on

Teaching art classes out on the deck

After long winters, when there were limitations on the outdoor motifs, the summertime was a most welcome season. It provided more color, easier travel, and much less worry about frozen hands and frozen paints.

Not only did Fritz chase a good view and set up in some unusual places, he encouraged his students to do the same.

 


He explained about color and clouds and perspective, but the thing that probably was hardest to teach, was how to get the 'feel' of the landscape into the painting. It is this 'feel' or 'mood' that made his paintings so popular. He somehow managed to capture more than just the view.

The Heartache of Flood Damage

Remaining half of a watercolor of a German town

It doesn't take long, when sorting and documenting the massive collection of sketches and paintings, for the damage of a flooded basement to become evident.

Many canvasses and sadly, many watercolors and other sketches are damaged, if not totally destroyed. It's hard to say whether it was due to Saskatoon's heavy rain flooding of 1982, where the water rose to one meter high downstairs, or other, lesser basement flooding in the small old house. The heartache of such a discovery is the same, regardless of the cause.

Thanks to photo editing software, however, many of these works can still be included in the inventory, and potentially in some of the planned book publishing. Restoration in print will likely be more successful than tackling it on the originals. Or is it best to just throw it all out.

Historic view of the Saskatoon City Hospital with water damage

Water damage on a watercolor sketch of a lake in summer

Long Weekend

Wakaw Lake Shorelines

  
  
That very Canadian institution of the 'long weekend at the lake' became one of Fritz's favorite quiet times for painting. Friends or relatives would extend invitations and in the later years, purchase of a cabin at Wakaw Lake, Saskatchewan, made the trips to the lake more frequent.




 
 
 
This in turn made the 'unrolling of the canvasses' as mentioned in the Retrospective booklet (link on the right), a much more common event. Delightful, in that so many peaceful summer moods were captured over the years.

4 years ago

A heated garage to serve as a temporary gallery

The incredible collection of works left behind by Fritz Stehwien is taking on a fresh new look in a make-shift gallery while the actual studio is getting some much needed renovations.

An estimated 1% of the existing collection

4 years ago, things were randomly stored throughout the studio and basement of the old residence. It has been, and still is, a daunting task to sort and document it all. Storage and presentation will probably always remain a challenge, especially with limited space and the costs involved in framing and display.

A studio full of paintings, sketches and drawings, 4 years ago.