Fischer, Ruth Elsa

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Ruth Elsa Fischer (1913 - after 1999)

REF

For reasons not entirely clear (clearness is NOT a collecting criterium), over the years a small collection of works (figurative and abstract) by Ruth Fischer was assembled. Although born well into the XX. century and “officially” outside the main focus of this collection, she had been a student in Gerda Koppel’s painting school in Hamburg before she came (was forced) to Amsterdam. Besides I find her works, in a strange way, very attractive. And she was pretty productive, her works show(ed) up regularly in Amsterdam. She loved to sketch in Artis ZOO

Jewish Ruth Fischer fled from Hamburg to Amsterdam in 1939 following her parents who succeeded fleeing Nazi Germany two years earlier. Her father Oskar was a banker (broker) in the Warburg bank. Ruth and her mother were naturalised after WW-II. Finding her father Oskar Fischer, who is said was born in Prague, settled in Hamburg and married a local girl so far was not successful. It is said he died in Amsterdam in 1953, but official records to prove this could not be found. All help to further Ruth’s biography is welcomed.

In Hamburg the family lived Hofweg 33 and there’s also a hint she had (or may have had) an older sister Ellen Käthe Fischer.

Because I very would like to further Ruth’s short biography, what became known to me can be found in the pop-up above (Artists name)

Archive

A choice of prints from past auctions. The portrait is of Dick Elfers, her teacher and married to photographer Emmie Andriesse (see biography

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gerbrandcaspers@icloud.com

Fischer, Ruth Elsa (Hamburg 13-09-1913 - after 1999)

Painter, lithographer, illustrator, drawer, collage & graphic artist, printmaker. Daughter of Czech Jewish merchant and banker Oskar Fischer (originating from Prague, died 1953 Amsterdam) and Elsa Maria Louise Bultze (b. Hamburg 03-02-1886 – d. after 1959) who also had the Czech nationality until naturalised Dutch in 1956-57.

Fischer-Bultze, Else. Mentioned in the Holocaust survivors and victims database (born Hamburg 03-02-1886 and living at Beethovenstraat 48, Amsterdam).

Rejewski- Bultze, Ruth. Unidentified scissor-cut artist, woodblock printmaker and illustrator of children’s book active in the 1950-60’s in Berlin.

Bultze, Paul. (b. 1878) “Schulleiter” (director) of Schule Moorkamp 3 in Eimsbuttel in Hamburg.

She is said to have an older sister Ellen Käthe. The family lived Hamburg Hofweg 33. It is said the family led an unreligious life. Her father was arrested and interned for two years in penitentiary institutions in Wolfsbüttel and Braunschweig before managing to escape the Nazis to Amsterdam with his wife in 1936. Ruth followed in 1939.

With her parents she visited many museums in Europe in her youth (1920’s). Her fathers Jewish roots are claimed to originate from Venice, Italy and her mothers to Poland and France (according to a 1999 newspaper interview).

Studied in Hamburg “Kunstgewerbeschule” in the painting school of Gerda Koppel (1875-1941) and later under her successor, designer Friedrich Adler (1878- murdered 1942 Auschwitz) and Eduard Borgheer (1901-1979).

She continued her studies in Amsterdam “Nieuwe Kunstschool” under Lex (Alexander) Metz (1913-1986). In 1939 Jewish Hamburg painter Paula Gans (1883-1941) who was also from Czech/Prague descent paid her a visit in Amsterdam suggesting the Gans and Fischer families had been in (close) contact in Hamburg. During the war she was banned from her studies and forbidden to work. Being Jewish she was denied registration in the “Kulturkamer” instituted by the occupying Germans. Her father had lost his permission to work as a banker-broker (for the German Warburg bank) and she was forced to live and work in her parents home well after the war. As many refugee artists she had to sell her art (and arts & crafts products) cheaply and secretly because of high penalties and great risks.

After the war she continued studying with photographer Cas Oorthuys (1908-1975), Lex Metz, Dick Elfers (1910-1990) who was married to photographer Emmie Andriesse (1914-1953) and photographer Walter Weinberg (Rheda 1905 - 1944 Auschwitz)

Walter Weinberg, his wife Ruth Hoffmann and their son Walter (Dusseldorf 1931) emigrated 1935 to Palestine but returned to Amsterdam. They tried to escape to Cuba on SS St. Louis but the ill-fated ship was forced back to Antwerp and they were interned in Westerbork. Januari 18. 1944 they were deported to Theresienstadt. September 28. 1944 they were transported to Auschwitz and murdered shortly after arrival.
The family lived Beethovenstraat 122/III.
His brother Werner Weinberg (b. 1915) and a sister survived Nazi persecution by also fleeing to the Netherlands and emigrating to America in 1948. He wrote an essay on Jewish life in Rheda.

Member B.B.K. and “de Grafische” (Amsterdam), women’s association “de Zeester” and “Nederlandse Kring van Grafici en Tekenaars”. She taught Evert Neuteboom (1932-2008). Her work is collected in Amsterdam “Stedelijk Museum”, the Hague “Haags Gemeentemuseum”, in the Dutch “Rijkscollectie, in Arnhem “Museum voor Moderne Kunst” and in Rotterdam “Museum Boymans van Beuningen”, but also in Portland Art Museum in America. In 1958-59 the naturalisation to Duch citizenship of her and her mother Elsa (by then “widow of Oskar Fischer”) was approved, both mentioned to be from Czech background and both having also the Czech nationality. In 1999 she was still working in the studio of her Amsterdam artist friend Ubaldo Sichi (b.Venice 1952).
She probably lived with her mother at Amsterdam Beethovenstraat 48. From the 1950’s her work is characterised by animals she liked to study and draw visiting Amsterdam Artis Zoo.

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Gans, Paula (Hronow near Prag 09-05-1883 – suicide 07-11-1941 Hamburg)

Impressionist landscape and realistic portrait painter. Daughter of Czech textile merchant Ignaz Gans and Johanna Goldberg, immigrated to Hamburg joined with her brother Richard in 1920. The family lived in a home bought by her brother Richard at the Heinrich Barthstrasse 12. Soon after her arrival she became friends with painter Hertha Spielberg (1890-1977) resulting in her also becoming an artist/painter using Spielbergs studio at the “Curiohaus” Rothenbaumchaussee 15 thus meeting and sharing the studio with painter Gertrud Schaeffer (1892-1960) and photographer Charlotte Rudolf (1896-1983). The artists created several portraits (in oil and photograph) of each other.

Travelled with Hertha Spielberg to Paris and the South of France. From 1933 it became extremely difficult to work as Jewish artists and being forced to join the “Kulturbund deutscher Juden” in 1935 renamed “Jüdischen Kulturbund”. In 1933 Hamburgs most important Jewish artist Anita Ree (1885-1933) committed suicide (“Freitod”). From 1935 Jewish artist were banned from exhibitions making it extremely difficult to make a living. In 1936 she travelled to Italy and in 1939 she visited Ruth Fischer in Amsterdam who’d managed to flee to Amsterdam with her family. After the annexation of Czechoslowakia in 1939 business with Germany had come to a halt affecting both Hamburg Gans and Fischer commercial business. In 1939 Richard Gans was forced to sell their house and were robbed of their possessions and money by the Nazis. With her brother she moved to a small house at Eppendorfer Raum 10 before owned by the Jewish Levy family who’d managed to escape to Norway and later Sweden. One day before her deportation she commited suicide. Her brother Richard was deported 18-11-1941 to Minsk and disappeared without a trace.

Spielberg, Herta (Altona 1890 – 1977 Großhansdorf n. Hamburg )

Portrait painter. Studied at Hamburg Altona “Kunstgewerbeschule” under Arthur Illies (1870-1952) continued in 1910 by studying for three years at Paris “Académie de la Grande Chaumière”. In her estate 37 paintings by Paula Gans were found.

Schaeffer, Gertrud (Altona 1892-1960 Hamburg ).

Painter and graphic artist. Grew up with her friend Herta Spielberg studying also Hamburg Altona “Kunstgewerbeschule” under Arthur Illies (1870-1952). They started together their studio in 1918 in the “Curiohaus” Rothenbaumchaussee 15.