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Swedish painter and printmaking artist from French-German descent represented by these 3 prints. His great-grandfather Napoleon Peltzer made a fortune in Moscow in the linnen* trade . He was born in Moscow, a few years before the Revolution and later studied in Paris. His prints are very “French”. Read his very interesting short biography in Vol. II. (* See also biography Elisabeth Schönleber).
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Bastin, Louis Napoléon (Moscow 04-06-1912 - 1979)
Painter, graphic artist and printmaker. Son of Moscow entrepreneur Louis Adolph Mathieu Bastin (Roubaix Pas de Calais Fr. 02-12-1881 - after 1919) and (married 14-10-1908) Marie Alma Barbara Peltzer (Selco Litvinovo, Bogorodsk 29-03-1887 - 26-08-1939 Stockholm Sweden).
They had 2 children: Alexander Eugen Friedrich Bastin (1909-1921) and Louis Napoleon Bastin 1912-1979. His father Louis Bastin disappeared during WW-I but later returned. The marriage ended in divorce in 1919. His mother emigrated to Sweden and remarried 30-06-1920 Sweden Franz Odd Landtblom (1890-1956) and had 2 more children Thomas Alexander L. (1921-2011) and Göran Frans Vladimir L. ( 1923-1967).
His father later seems to have remarried his first wife’s sister Katharina Peltzer (1878-1962) (info Geanet). His mothers oldest brother Alexander (Moscow 1874 - 1939 Chiemsee near Munich) started his career in his fathers textile business but became a painter after his training in Munich.
His father: “Le sieur Bastin ( Louis Mathieu Adolphe), demeurant à Roubaix (Nord ), rue d'Inkermann , n ° 93 , né le 2 décembre 1881 audit Roubaix , d'un père et d' une mère nés en Allemagne. Déclaration souscrite, le 20 janvier 1903.
Grandparents
4 -
5 -
6 Alexander Peltzer (Narwa 04-03-1850 - 1923). Merchant in Moscow. Married 22May1874, Moscow, Russia:
7 Marie Katharina Peltzer (Balaschicka 13-10-1850 -Village Kablukova Bogorodsk 1919), they had 7 children.
Great Grandparents
12 Napoléon Peltzer (Kloster Wenau Kanton Eschweiler, Landkreis Aachen NRW. 25-06-1802 - 10-12-1889 Narova Russia (87). Merchant and linnen/cloth manufacturer. He’d decided not to continue the copper business of his forebears but founded a dynasty of linnen manufacturers in Moscow. Modernising Russian linnen and textile industry , founding factories and supplying the imperial Russian Army made him and his family extremely wealthy. 3 of his brothers, Johann Sigismund (1795-1876), Friedrich (1808-1897) and Johan Georg (1810-1897) and his sister Helena accompanied the family dynastie in Moscow. becoming acquainted with Kaiser Wilhelm-I and Tsar Alexander-II personally.
Married Moscow 21-05-1833:
13 Katharina Emilia Charlotta Mollenhauer (1820-1878).
14 Friedrich Peltzer (Kloster Wenau Kanton Eschweiler, Landkreis Aachen NRW - june-1808 06-01-1887), cloth manufacturer, married:
15 Barbara Catharina Becker.
Great Great Grandparents
24 Johann Wilhelm Peltzer (Kupferhof Jordan, Stolberg, Aachen, Rheinland, Preussen 12-11-1770 - 10-01-1849 - Aachen, NRW (78), merchant and active in the copper industry and mayor of Weisweiler. Married:
25 Anna Maria Sophia Esser (1768-1841)
26 Cornelius Mollenhauer, (1770-/1854) trader and merchant. Married:
27 Catharina Hagemann (1793-1854)
28 = 24
29 = 25
30 Nikolaus Becker, married:
31 Isabella Scott
His father, only mentioned and known as a “businessman” in Moscow was born in France and in most biographies his mother is said to derive from Dutch families. Her parents (they were cousins) actually derived from a German Peltzer family living in the Aachen (very near the Netherlands) region since the 15th century and active in the copper industry. Both her grandfathers were 2 from 4 Peltzer brothers who settled in Moscow as linnen and textile traders.
Louis Bastin left Russia before the first World War with his brother and mother and became a Swede at the age of seven. After school and college in Sweden he was thrown into an artistic career by the well known illustrator, caricaturist and writer Albert Engstrom (1869-1940), who said: "Try to become an artist, young man, you are no good for anything else." Bastin went to Paris and studied 1934-35 under Marcel Gromaire (1892-1972) in the Maison Watteau. He spent much of his time visiting the Louvre studying the masters. His quote: “Black is the queen of all colours”.
Maison Watteau also known as “Académie Scandinave”. It was fopuinded shortly after WW-I and in existence between 1919 and 1935.
Private art school founded by sculptress Lena Börjeson (1879-1976) acting as leader and painter Gunnar Cederschiöld (1887-1949) acting as its president. It was situated in Maison Watteau in der Rue Jules-Chaplain[ (6. Arr.). The school closed in 1935 due to the political situation and was continued in stockholm Sweden by Börjeson as “Lena Börjeson Skulpturskola”.
Besides Gromaire, Othon Friesz, Charles Edmond Kayser , André Lhote, Henri de Warroguier and several other fine artists were associated with the school as teachers.
He also studied in Cologne under Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann (1883-1973) and in Stockholm “Kunsthöchskolan” (1936-1942) receiving etching lessons from Emil Johanson-Thor (1889-1958). Known for his post impressionist pictures of street scenes and (small) children. Solo exhibition in Stockholm Harry Lund Gallery 1970 and 1973. His work is represent in Stockholm “Nationalmuseum”, Göteborg “Konstmuseum” and Oslo “Nasjonalgalleriet” and in Kalmar “Konstmuseum”.
He is probably best known for his intimate etchings and lithographic drawings of (small) children and babies, family, mother and child etc.. . Many of them will have been after his own three sons. He is also known from views of Paris and river Seine. He must have been heavily influenced by Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947 because much of his works is almost indistinguishable from similar work by Bonnard.
By 1960, Bastin was one of Sweden's foremost artists and one of the deans of printmaking. He exhibited in all the major capitals of Europe as well as the United States and South America.
He married Irma Gyberg (1917-2008). They had 3 sons: John (1943), Pierre Louis (1946) and Thomas Louis (1948).
Hofmann, Ludwig von (Darmstadt 17-08-1861 – 23-08-1945 Berlin)
Painter, designer, graphic and printmaker. Son of Prussian statesman Karl von Hofmann (1827-1910) and Cora Kekulé von Stradonitz (1835–1897. His father served as Minister-president of the Grand Duchy of Hesse from 1872 to 1876 and was briefly Trade Minister in the cabinet of Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898. Their children:
• Sophie (b. 1860) ∞ zoologist Justus Carriere (1854-1893)
• Ludwig (1861–1945) ∞ Eleonore Kekulé von Stradonitz (b. 1876)
• Heinrich (1863–1921), “Generalleutnant” ∞ Freiin Asta von Grüter-Diepenbroik (1875–1940)
• Maria (b. 1865) ∞ Justus Thiersch (1859–1937), “Bezirksarzt”, son of surgeon Carl Thiersch (1822-1895)
• Cornelie (b. 1866) ∞ Max von Kaisenberg (1862–1916), “Oberstleutnant”.
He worked in a combination of the Art Nouveau and Symbolist styles. His work was part of the painting event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics.
Began his studies in 1883 at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, then studied with Ferdinand Keller (1842-1922) at the Academy of Fine Arts, Karlsruhe. In 1889, he attended the Académie Julian in Paris, where he came under the influence of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1824-1898) and Paul-Albert Besnard (1849-1934).
After 1890, he was a freelance painter in Berlin. From 1894 to 1900, he travelled extensively and spent a great deal of his time at his villa in Fiesole. His appreciation of antiquity and attraction to the idea of Arcadia permeates much of his work. After 1895, he was a regular contributor of illustrations for the Art Nouveau magazine Pan. In 1896, he became a member of the Berlin Secession and he was married in 1899. He was also a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund
In 1903, he was appointed a Professor at the Weimar Saxon Grand Ducal Art School, where he became a member of the avant-garde literary and artistic group centred around Harry Graf Kessler (1868-1937). Jean Arp (1886-1936) and Ivo Hauptmann (1886-1973) were among his students. In 1916, he was named a Professor at the Academy in Dresden, where he remained until 1931. He also provided illustrations for a new translation of the Odyssey by philosopher Leopold Ziegler (1881-1958) and works by Gerhart Hauptmann (1882-1946) Ivo’s father.
His overall production slackened in the 1930s and, in 1937, some of his works were labeled as "degenerate art". He retired to Pillnitz, near Dresden, where he died in 1945. His remaining works were almost confiscated by the Russians after the war, but his widow managed to save them.
See: Hauptmann, Ivo
