Artist.Friends / Künstler.Freunde
Johannes Hänsch und Paul Lehmann-Brauns
Johannes Hänsch (1875–1945) and Paul Lehmann-Brauns (1885–1970) were artistic companions and close personal friends.
For the first time, their friendship is being honored in a joint exhibition, following a solo show dedicated to the work of Johannes Hänsch in 2015. Among the nearly 50 paintings and drawings on display are numerous loans from private collections, as well as from the Berlinische Galerie – State Museum of Modern Art, Photography and Architecture, the Stadtmuseum Berlin Foundation, and the Sölring Museen Sylt / Keitum.
Johannes Hänsch and Paul Lehmann-Brauns began their careers as landscape painters in Berlin during the early decades of the 20th century. Both received their artistic training in the environment of the Berlin Academy of Arts: Johannes Hänsch from 1897 at the Royal Academic University of Fine Arts (today’s UdK), studying under Eugen Bracht, among others; Paul Lehmann-Brauns from 1918 at the private painting school of Bracht’s student Hans Licht. Deliberately, neither painter joined the Berlin Secession or other modernist groups, instead developing their own distinctive approach to contemporary landscape painting within the tradition of German Impressionism.
A photograph taken around 1929 in Wyk on the island of Föhr shows Johannes Hänsch and Paul Lehmann-Brauns painting plein air together, a testament to both their artistic and close personal bond.
In addition to shared excursions and participation in exhibitions such as the annual Great Berlin Art Exhibition, Hänsch and Lehmann-Brauns undertook working trips to places like the North Frisian islands of Sylt and Föhr and the Giant Mountains (Riesengebirge) in Silesia. The artworks created during these trips found collectors and buyers both locally and in Berlin. The exhibition presents not only these travel-inspired works but also paintings featuring scenes from the Berlin countryside – thereby reaffirming the mission of the Museum of the Havelland Artists’ Colony.
A 92-page catalogue (€17.00), published by the Havelländische Malerkolonie e.V. Friends Association, accompanies the exhibition and includes around 60 illustrations. It will be available for purchase at the museum and through our online shop starting from the exhibition’s opening.
