Short description: A colourised etching of a hereditary farm by Fritz Neumann.
Notes: There is also a print (certainly from a magazine) of this etching on eBay . Keep in mind, that those aren’t woodcuts!
Short description: Sailing boats (Ric 25) and A latern next to a stair (Ric 14)
Notes: Taken from auctionet.com . This post provides better images then the ones in the work list.
The United States Copyright Office (USCO) is a keeper of differend kind of copyright entries. It used to issue a printed catalogue of those registered copyright claims. Since the USA has been a global market already before world war two, there were copyright registrations by J.C. Blumenberg in the thirties. Some of those, especially in Part 4: Works of Art, these also cover works by our Fritz Neumann. This gives us dates for certain works of our Fritz and is an indicator when they started to work with each other.
The printed copyright catalogs have been digitised and are available at the Internet Archive .
1936
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series. Part 4: Works of Art 1936: Vol 31 No 1-4, Page 228
1938
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series. Part 4: Works of Art 1938: Vol 33 No 1-4, Page 43
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series. Part 4: Works of Art 1938: Vol 33 No 1-4, Page 145
1939
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series. Part 4: Works of Art 1939: Vol 34 No 1-4, Page 28
Catalog of Copyright Entries, New Series. Part 4: Works of Art 1939: Vol 34 No 1-4, Page 143
Summary
| Work | Date |
|---|---|
| Bestrafte raufbold | September 1936 |
| Sieger | September 1936 |
| Jagdflieger | January 1937 |
| Ferienerinnerungen (from my window) | May 1938 |
| Cup race | December 1938 |
| Dem endkampf entgegen | July 1937 |
| Ran an den wind | March 1936 |
| Hol an die schooten (Taking it cleverly) | July 1936 |
| Mercurius | March 1937 |
Short description: A postcard by Fritz Neumann - “Naysayers”
Notes: Found on AKPool
Even if Fritz Neumann-Hegenberg could be ruled out as “our” Fritz Neumann from the outset. There is further evidence to support this.
Already on 31 August 2021, three years ago, a work by Fritz Neumann-Hegenberg appeared on the TV programme “Bares für Rahres” . Following the programme, a newspaper article about the consequences was also published (behind a paywall).
His works are also represented in various online collections
Since both the address book entries and some of Fritz Neumann’s works (such as this from August 1935 or this from between 1934 and 1951) date from the time of the ‘3rd Reich’, it is relatively likely that he was a member of the Reichskunstkammer . Membership was compulsory at the time…
And indeed, in the Landesarchiv Berlin (state archive Berlin), which administers the files of the “Reichskammer der bildenden Künste”, Landesleitung Berlin, there is a personal file on Fritz Neumann, born on 18 June 1905, under the archive signature A Rep. 243-04 No. 6261 !
In addition, you can see that there is a Finding aid of the collection . This also contains evidence of several auctions in which a ‘Fritz Neumann’ is mentioned…
And there is also at least one Fritz Neumann in the files of the “Reichschrifttumskammer”, kept at the Bundesarchiv, but we’ll ignore it for now…
The finding aid also reveals a date of birth: 18 June 1905!
And with this date there is even more: Fritz Neumann, born on 18 June 1905, was probably a teacher at the Staatsbauschule Berlin-Neukölln. At least there is a corresponding personnel file in the branch of the Federal Archives in Berlin-Lichterfelde. The school merged into today’s Berlin University of Applied Sciences via several intermediate steps .
But is this ‘our’ Fritz?
Short description: Coloured etching of a duck pond by Fritz Neumann
Notes: Found on a flea market (Flohmarkt Flohschanze) in Hamburg. The embossed mark of J.C. Blumenberg is clearly recognisable.
The original note where our Fritz Neumann confirms that he is Ric, published by Mark Strong of Meibohm Fine Arts included an address:
His address is Gartenfelder Str. 132 h in Berlin Haselhorst.
Since Torsten Steinberg, the author of the ad mentioned in the last post wrote about the old address books of Berlin I tried to do the same. This are the results, the first result was from 1934:
Address book 1934
Address book 1936
Address book 1937
Address book 1943
Address book 1957
Address book 1961
Address book 1970
Above only random samples, therefore the cut-outs are not continuous. No address books are available after 1970, so here are some extracts from telephone directories.
Phone book 1978
Phone book 1984
This at least makes it clear that our Fritz Neumann lived and worked in Berlin for around 50 years. And perhaps died in 1984, or at least stopped working as a graphic designer, e.g. because he went into an old people’s home.
Sources
The digital copies of the sources are linked to the respective excerpts. As the URN:NBN resolver of the DNB is used, these can also be cited.
Another clue
After receiving the news that Fritz Neumann (1928-2014) is not our Fritz Neumann, it was time to re-examine possible candidates. An interesting new clue was this offer on classifieds (formerly ‘eBay Kleinanzeigen’). In the ad dated 08.07.2024, 8 paintings (watercolours) by a Fritz Neumann are offered, the signature is very similar to that of the prints by ‘our’ Fritz Neumann. And there also is a known painting of the Charlottenburg Palace by our Fritz Neumann…
Here is the text of the advert:
Fritz Neumanns are a dime a dozen. The Berlin address book for 1964 alone lists 63 of them, including 2 painters, 1 technical draughtsman and 1 graphic artist. It is the latter who painted the watercolours offered here.
Above all, the company Meibohm Fine Arts near Buffalo on Lake Erie traded his works in the USA, sometimes under his real name, sometimes under the pseudonym RIC, then preferably maritime, e.g. sailing boats, but also animal motifs. Behind both signatures is the same Fritz Neumann, who is listed in the Berlin address books as living in Siemensstadt, at Gartenfelder Str. 132 h, until 1979. The motifs of the watercolours offered here are grouped around this place of residence, which in many respects are strongly reminiscent of the works of the well-known Berlin architectural painter Alfred-Karl Dietmann and are in no way inferior to them.
Fritz Neumann’s etchings are usually stamped ‘JCB’ by the Lübeck art publisher Josef Carl Blumenberg, through whom they found their way to the USA. If the works are signed ‘Neumann’, the spelling corresponds to that on the watercolours; if, however, they are signed ‘RIC’, it becomes clear, especially from early examples, that the pseudonym is not a new invention, but a derivation from the peculiar spelling of the first name Fritz, which can also be seen on the watercolours.
I know Fritz Neumann’s biography from Jürgen Derschewsky’s ‘Biography of Oldenburg Artists’. However, this painter seems to have little more to do with Berlin than the fact that he was born there on 27 October 1928. After school and the war, he worked as a trainee stonemason on the restoration of the war damage to Minden Cathedral in 1948/49. From 1949-53 he studied at the Braunschweig School of Art (sculpture department) and from 1954-57 at the Pedagogical College in Oldenburg, including work as an art teacher. In 1971 he joined the Oldenburg regional group of the Association of Visual Artists (BBK). 1972 First participation in an exhibition in Nordenham, which was to be followed by many more in Oldenburg and the surrounding area, most recently a retrospective of drawings, paintings and sculptures in February/March 2001. Fritz Neumann died in Oldenburg on 23 March 2014, and his wife died there five years later.
The clear focus on Oldenburg raises doubts as to whether this biography actually matches the Fritz Neumann who, at least until 1979, still had a suitcase in Berlin and to whom we owe the Berlin motifs offered here. J. Derschewsky apparently only analysed local sources when reconstructing the biography, which is why he probably missed the artist’s two-track career with a foothold in Berlin. There is a gap of more than a decade in his biography, especially around the 1960s, when I would date the Berlin watercolours, but the etching of two fishing boats as an otherwise missing link is a sure indication that the very Fritz Neumann who painted the Berlin motifs offered here also fished in Oldenburg.
After his holiday, Torsten Steinberg, the provider of the pictures, contacted me and agreed to take over his text and pictures.
Doubts
The remarkable thing is that there are clear doubts in the text that the Fritz Neumann who painted and signed the watercolours (and is therefore very probably ‘our’ Fritz Neumann) and Fritz Neumann (1928-2014) are identical. The text also offers some interesting clues as to how the seller came to these doubts. He did some research in old address books…
