Kappstein, Carl Friedrich  (Berlin 06-03-1869 - 1933 Berlin) 

Painter, lithographer, author and teacher. Probably son of Jewish Th. (Theodor) Kappstein.

In 1868 the Berlin address book does not hold any Kappstein family members. The 1869 volume is not available and in 1870 Th. Kappstein “Stubenmaler” is mentioned living at Philipp-strasse 21 IVn.

A “Stubenmaler" is an artist (artisan) who decorates-paints walls, ceilings and crypts in the gothic style and tradition (fresco painter)

His probably brother Theodor Kappstein (Berlin 28-11-1870 - 17-05-1960 Rudolstadt) was a theologist, publicists and critic and is known as author of 9 theological and literary books and articles (1898-1913). He was married to author and story teller (“Erzählerin”) Anna Benisch (Potsdam 1870 -1950 Rudolstadt). 

Studied 1886 at Berlin Academy under Woldemar Friedrich (1846-1910) and (best known as an important animal painter) Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (1842-1915) 

Visited Italy and Sicily in 1893-94 and was appointed 1905 as teacher in Charlottenburg “Akademische Hochschule”. He is the author of a handbook on lithography in 1910: “Der Künstlerische Steindruck” published by Bruno Cassierer.

Although mentioned a teacher in Dresslers KHB, only one student mentioned his name as being his art teacher.  

Mainly painted animals, but also landscapes and still lifes. In 1904 he was awarded a small gold medal at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition.

Took part in all important “Exhibition of contemporary German Graphic Art” held in the Art Institute of Chicago in 1913 with all known German graphic artist of the time: Max Liebermann, MaxKlinger, Walter Klemm (incl. the famous Pelican print), Kathe Kollwitz, Erna Frank etc….

Represented in the catalog: 

Kappstein, Carl 

122. The Toy Dogs

123. Winter 

124. The Swan-pool

Dresslers KHB 1930:  Berlin Grunewald, Hubertusbadertstrasse 23. Member VBK. 

Hess, Louis Christian (Bolzano 1893 - 1944 Innsbruck ) 

Hess was born in Bolzano in the South Tyrol; his father was an office clerk, his mother from the Austrian bourgeoisie. In 1906 the family moved to Innsbruck where Hess studied at the “Staatsgewerbeschule” (State Institute of Art), and in 1915 he had his first exhibition of drawings and prints at the Thurn und Taxishof Galerie

Louis Christian Hess (1895-1944) was strongly influenced by German Expressionism and the Neue Sachlichkeit. He became friends with Max Beckmann and Karl Hofer and was a leading voice in the “Juryfreie” in Munich.

His formative years, however, were overshadowed by a succession of family bereavements and the horrors of the First World War. Between the ages of 10 and 22, he lost his father and two of his three sisters to tuberculosis, and learnt of the death of his mother whilst on the German front line, where he fought in the battles of Verdun, the Somme and Aisne. By the end of the War he had one remaining sibling, his sister Emma, to whom he remained close. But his war time experiences combined with unfolding family tragedies scarred him psychologically, and left him with a nervous disposition for the rest of his life. In 1919, during the early years of the Weimar Republic, Hess began studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich under painter Carl Johann Becker-Gundahl (1856-1925).

Although the Academy was conservative in outlook, it was there that Hess developed his natural skill as a colourist. In 1920 he exhibited in the “Ausstellung Junger Münchner – Graphische Kunstwerkstätten”, where his work was singled out by the critic George Jacob Wolf for having ‘an uncommonly developed sense of colour’. Munich in the 1920s was home to the artists most closely associated with Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity) – amongst them Otto Dix, George Scholz, Christian Schad and Max Beckmann. Although Hess was not formally associated with the movement, he became friends with Beckmann in the late 1920s, and the influence of the style can clearly be seen in his work. In 1925 Hess travelled to Sicily to visit his sister Emma in Messina. He wrote to his friends in Germany that he had found paradise, and so inspired, in 1926 he produced a series of 60 vibrant Sicilian etchings, and returned repeatedly to the island thereafter. Hess joined the progressive “Juryfreie” in Munich in 1929, becoming one of the group’s leaders. The “Juryfreie” (Jury-free) was self-adjudicating and open to artists from all traditions. During the 1920s and early 1930s it was the most liberal exhibiting body in Munich; sometime members included Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Schlemmer. 

In July the same year Art critic Wilhelm Hausenstein wrote in “Aus meinem Künstnotizbuch” that the ‘Juryfreie reveals itself as a prominent artistic group... I notice Christian Hess, Josef Scharl, Fritz Burkhardt, Grassmann, Panizza and sculptors such as Spengler and Zeh’. With wider recognition for his work Hess also exhibited with the Secessionists at the Glaspalast in the early 1930s. But disaster and disruption followed. Tragically several of his works were destroyed in a catastrophic fire at the Glaspalast in June 1931. Devastated, Hess wrote on a postcard to his sister Emma illustrating the ruins of the Glaspalast fire: ‘here lie my works: all burnt’. The same year too, following public demonstrations by the “Juryfreie”, Hess and others were banned from the group by the far-right paramilitary wing the SA, and in 1934, with Hitler’s rise to power, the “Juryfreie” was disbanded as they were viewed as ‘culturally bolshevic’. Following the financial crash of 1929, the on-set of the Depression and widespread unemployment, Hess wrote to Emma in 1932: ‘Financially, circumstances have never been so catastrophic. Wherever you are and whoever you speak to, everyone grumbles…and politics are the main theme.’ The following year, with mounting political instability, and with his art viewed as degenerate by the authorities, Hess fled Germany to join his sister in Sicily with his wife, the actress Cecilia Faesy. But Hess's years with Cecilia were short lived; in 1936 she left him to travel to Switzerland. The rupture caused the artist extreme mental instability and pushed him to attempted suicide. He lived for a further two years in Sicily before returning to Munich in 1938, leaving many of his paintings behind him in the care of his sister. Forced to conscript in 1940, due to his fragile health Hess was assigned work at the post office, but in December of 1940 he fell seriously ill and was discharged. He returned to Austria and in 1944 died in hospital at the age of 48 after an air raid over Innsbruck. During the Second World War Messina suffered extensive bombing due to its strategic position. To protect the paintings her brother left behind, Emma rolled and wrapped them, shielding them in air-raid shelters. After Hess’s death Emma oversaw his estate and the survival of a significant numbers of his work. The seven lots in this sale are from the group that Hess delivered to his sister when he revisited Messina in 1936.

Very few of his works have ever appeared on the market.

Courtesy https://www.chiswickauctions.co.uk/news-item/seven-works-by-louis-christian-hess/