Featured 2 small etchings winter mountain scenes...help w/ sig, location

Hello, hello! found these 2 etchings recently...any help with the location and deciphering the signature would be most welcome.

thanks!

 

I like them a lot. I don't think there is a chance to ID the location, too generic of scenes. Could be almost anywhere, but looks like the artist had some nice technique.

Cannot make heads or tails out of the signature. The foil label on the back is interesting. There are several references to this shop online. The label looks 1930's to me, plus or minus. It seems like this store sold nicer art in NY, there are a few auctions online where they mention the label.

Maybe someone else will have thoughts.

 

I think he was a framer/restorer. Not necessarily a retailer of art.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Business-Car...D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

The first article online I opened referred to him specifically as selling oils, watercolors, etchings and mezzotints. It was written by a relative. Not much more info than that, unfortunately. Sounds like he did restorations and framing as well.

 

Nice little prints. How can an artist write the title so clearly, yet make their name so illegible? I can't make heads nor tails of this one. Argoning? What is that first letter?

 

I believe the artist is one of the best known on this site.

"ANONYMOUS" and wish to remain that way forever!

 

first one looks like L. Groenig to me

 

l. groenig....i'll see what i can find. thanks to everyone!

 

The forest scene looks almost like "h. goering" to me........dates would be about right......although he was an avid art collector, not that I see an artist......

 

Maybe the person who wrote the title isn't the artist? Either that or he should've stuck to printing!

They look Alpine or Bavarian to me.

 

Does look like a typical Alpine scene.

Debora

 

Noticed your question on this site which I have only now signed up to. I think I can answer your question.

Both etchings are signed by Hertha Czoernig and almost certainly will be of the Austrian Tyrol. Not particularly valuable. I have an etching by her currently for sale on eBay.

There is some other seller that insists the works are by H Goering. They are not. In fairness it is a difficult signature to decipher but once you have got it in your brain actually instantly recognisable.

Helga Czoernig was born in Klagenfurt Austria in 1886 and studied at the Art School for Women and latterly in Weimar Germany. Herta (or Hertha) was the grand-daughter of a gentleman with Bohemian roots, named "Czörnig". He held high office in the Habsburg administration. In 1852 he was awarded the noble title of "Freiherr" which is in the UK is the equivalent to the title of "Baron" and so he was named from that day onward: Carl - Freiherr Czoernig von Czernhausen. He was relatively famous because of his 'invention' of statistical theories.

A son of a "Freiherr" has the same title, and a daughter was called "Freiin". One of his sons married a girl with Jewish origin/roots named "Gobanz". As you might know - the Jewish roots (or genetics of names) are given to the next generations only by the daughter’s line.

So: the first born was a boy and had all his life, the name: Walter Czoernig von Czernhausen [born 1883] like his grandfather (with that name) and was famous as a 'cave-explorer'.

The second born was a girl, our artist, 'started' her life with the name: Hertha Czoernig - Gobanz [born 1886] So with that Jewish name (Gobanz) she studied art in Vienna and Weimar in the beginning of the 20th century. In Vienna she was taught the art of etching by Professor Ludwig Michalek.

Early etchings by her are signed H. Gobanz Czoernig. Unusual as you would expect the surnames to be the other way round.

We know she toured all the streets and squares and sites of Vienna, plus the countryside, etching and drawing. Of course in the 1930’s after the Anschluss and the rise of Nazi power in Vienna, life for Jews in the city changed dramatically.

It appears at this time, she omits the Gobanz constituent of her signature and switches to signing her “German” name H. Czoernig, as in these etchings, for obvious reasons.

So perhaps not large monetary value but a remarkable testament so somebody with high skill and more amazingly survived the holocaust, albeit with second generation Jewish antecedents.

I have several others in my collection including one showing her earlier signature pre 1930's.

Kind regards
Gavin Smith

 

Welcome to the forum Gavin Smith, great entry.

The horrific 'Nürnberger laws' of 1935 defined race and what being a Jew meant, thereby defining who had to be sent to camps.
As far as I know, someone like Hertha Czoerning, with two or one Jewish grandparent(s) and probably not married to a Jew, was not considered a real Jew and was as safe as anyone could be in those days.