August Haake (7 December 1889,

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie H ...

– 2 January 1915, Bremen) was a German

landscape painter Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a coherent compo ...

Life and work

He was the only child of a wealthy businessman who dealt in furnishings and related items. As a child, he led a sheltered life due to a severe case of stuttering that would often leave him speechless. He was sent to a private preparatory school and later attended the Gymnasium but, because of his impediment, did poorly. In 1908, he decided not to continue his formal education, taking courses in

stenography Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed and brevity of writing as compared to longhand, a more common method of writing a language. The process of writing in shorthand is called stenography, from the Greek ''st ...

, typing and bookkeeping with the intention of following his father into business. He also underwent speech therapy, but to no avail. Finally, he and his father agreed that a business career was unsuitable and he began to pursue his interest in painting. , a landscape painter and the son of one of his father's business acquaintances, gave him his first lessons, after which he attended the Bremen

School of Applied Arts A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...

. Then, following Bertelsmann's recommendation, he went to the

Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School The Grand-Ducal Saxon Art School, Weimar (German:Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar) was founded on 1 October 1860, in Weimar, Germany, by a decree of Charles Alexander, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. It existed until 1910, when ...

where he became a Master Student of

Fritz Mackensen Fritz Mackensen (born 8 April 1866 in Greene, near Kreiensen, Duchy of Brunswick – 12 May 1953 in Bremen) was a German painter of the Düsseldorf school of painting and Art Nouveau. He was a friend of Otto Modersohn and Hans am Ende, ...

. Every summer while he was a student (from 1910 to 1914), he would join Bertelsmann at the Fischerhude art colony in Worpswede, prolifically painting everything of interest in the local surroundings. It was there that he came under the influence of the

Barbizon school The Barbizon school of painters were part of an art movement towards Realism in art, which arose in the context of the dominant Romantic Movement of the time. The Barbizon school was active roughly from 1830 through 1870. It takes its nam ...

and

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

. In 1914, he developed the symptoms of

lead poisoning Lead poisoning, also known as plumbism and saturnism, is a type of metal poisoning caused by lead in the body. The brain is the most sensitive. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, constipation, headaches, irritability, memory problems, inferti ...

. Apparently, he had been in the habit of sharpening his brushes between his lips and absorbed lead from the white

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic comp ...

s. He died shortly after undergoing stomach surgery at St. Joseph's Hospital in Bremen.Volkert H. U. Koch: ''August Haake 1889–1915''. With an introduction by Thomas Deecke, contributions by Birgit Nachtwey and Wolf-Dietmar Stock. Kunstverein Fischerhude in Buthmanns Hof e.V.. Verlag Atelier im Bauernhaus, Fischerhude 2006. After his death, a young music student named Hipo Döhrman presented herself to his parents as his fiancée and was informally adopted into the family. His paintings were kept by friends and family and were largely inaccessible to the public until 1967. Most are still in private ownership. As he usually didn't sign his paintings, attribution of his works is sometimes based solely on their original ownership or his habit of drilling two holes in his canvases, to dry them by hanging them on his back with a string while riding home on his motorcycle.

References

External links

Fischerhude Journal: More paintings by August Haake
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haake, August 1889 births 1915 deaths German landscape painters Artists from Bremen (city) 20th-century German painters 20th-century German male artists German male painters Lead poisoning incidents Deaths by poisoning

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links