Maxim Kopf (born Maximilian Kopf; 18 January 1892 – 6 July 1958) was an Austrian-American painter, graphic artist and sculptor. He worked in Prague and was a prominent figure of German cultural life in

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

in the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...

. He was initially strongly influenced by

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and later primarily created works with biblical themes as well as city and landscape images. He is also called a cosmopolitan painter because he created his paintings in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Czechoslovakia, France,

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

and the United States. He traveled extensively and visited

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Dalmatia Dalmatia (; ; ) is a historical region located in modern-day Croatia and Montenegro, on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Through time it formed part of several historical states, most notably the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Croatia (925 ...

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

and

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

, among other places.

Life and work

Maxim Kopf was born on 18 January 1892 in Vienna as the second of four children of the Austrian civil servant Emil Kopf (1863–1911) and his wife Louisa, née Jagemann (died 1865). He grew up in a German-speaking family and probably also had Czech roots through his grandmother Maria Truhelková. Starting in 1911, he studied under August Brömse, Franz Thiele,

Vlaho Bukovac Vlaho Bukovac (; ; 4 July 1855 – 23 April 1922) was a Croatian painting, painter and academic. His life and work were eclecticism, eclectic, for the artist pursued his career in a variety of locales and his style changed greatly over the course ...

, and Karl Krattner at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Prague The Academy of Fine Arts in Prague (; AVU) is an art college in Prague, Czech Republic. Founded in 1799, it is the oldest art college in the country. The school offers twelve master's degree programs and one doctoral program. History Starting ...

. During the war he was an officer in the Joint Army of Austria-Hungary. After the end of the war he chose Czechoslovakian citizenship and stayed in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. He was a member of the Metznerbund and in 1919, with August Brömse, co-founder of the artist group Die Pilger, an association of German and German-speaking artists in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

. The group initially included other students of Brömse such as Josef Hegenbarth, Emil Helzel, Norbert Hochsieder, Julius Pfeiffer and Leo Sternhell. Mary Duras, Walther Klemm, Moriz Melzer and Emil Orlik later joined the group, which existed until 1925. In 1920 he received a prize from the Prague Academy for the picture ''The Pilgrim''. Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to continue his studies at the

Dresden Academy of Fine Arts The Dresden Academy of Fine Arts (German language, German ''Hochschule für Bildende Künste Dresden''), often abbreviated HfBK Dresden or simply HfBK, is a vocational university of visual arts located in Dresden, Germany. The present institutio ...

under Otto Gussmann (1869–1926) from 1921 to 1923. Kopf traveled to

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

and the

Marquesas Islands The Marquesas Islands ( ; or ' or ' ; Marquesan language, Marquesan: ' (North Marquesan language, North Marquesan) and ' (South Marquesan language, South Marquesan), both meaning "the land of men") are a group of volcano, volcanic islands in ...

in 1924 and began his first South Seas cycle. In 1925 he worked for the

Ziegfeld Theater The Ziegfeld Theatre was a single-screen movie theater located at 141 West 54th Street in midtown Manhattan in New York City. It opened in 1969 and closed in 2016. The theater was named in honor of the original Ziegfeld Theatre (1927–1966), ...

. Here, he was able to organize an exhibition in the New Gallery for visiting artists Hilde Goldschmidt, Friedrich Karl Gotsch and Hans Meyboden. He then stayed in Paris and Montrouge and then lived again in Prague, where his first marriage was to the sculptor Mary Duras in 1927, with whom he had already spent time in New York in 1923. In Prague in 1927 he founded the Young Art group, which had its first exhibition in 1928 and from which the Prague Secession emerged in 1929. In the same year he also stayed in the

Giant Mountains The Giant Mountains, Krkonoše, or Karkonosze (Czech: , , ), are a mountain range located in the north of the Czech Republic and the south-west of Poland, part of the Sudetes mountain system (part of the Bohemian Massif). The Czech–Polish bor ...

. In 1932 he traveled to Italy and stayed in Torbole on

Lake Garda Lake Garda (, , or , ; ; ) is the largest lake in Italy. It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, between Brescia and Milan to the west, and Verona and Venice to the east. The lake cuts into the edge of the Eastern Alps, Italian Alp ...

. In 1933–34 he worked on the large ceiling fresco of the former German House in Prague. His marriage to Duras ended in divorce in 1933. In 1936 he married the actress

Lotte Stein Lotte Stein (1894–1982) was a German actress of the stage and screen. Of Jewish descent, she fled to the United States via Czechoslovakia and Portugal, and arrived at the Port of New York on board the SS ''Mouzinho'' in June 1941. Selected fi ...

in Prague, but this marriage also ended in divorce in the 1940s. At the end of the summer of 1934 he undertook his second voyage via

Suez Suez (, , , ) is a Port#Seaport, seaport city with a population of about 800,000 in north-eastern Egypt, located on the north coast of the Gulf of Suez on the Red Sea, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal. It is the capital and largest c ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

and

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, which resulted in the pictures of the second South Sea cycle. He returned to Prague in the spring of 1935 via

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

. In 1936 he spent a month visiting countries on the Black Sea, including the USSR,

Sevastopol Sevastopol ( ), sometimes written Sebastopol, is the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea. Due to its strategic location and the navigability of the city's harbours, Sevastopol has been an important port and naval base th ...

and

Yalta Yalta (: ) is a resort town, resort city on the south coast of the Crimean Peninsula surrounded by the Black Sea. It serves as the administrative center of Yalta Municipality, one of the regions within Crimea. Yalta, along with the rest of Crime ...

in Crimea. In May 1938 he traveled to Tahiti for the third time; he returned to Prague in autumn 1938. After the fall of Czechoslovakia, he fled from Prague via Germany and Holland to Paris in March 1939, staying in Czechoslovakia's Maison de la Culture until September. He was then arrested and interned as an enemy alien for five months. He then went to French Morocco as a member of the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (, also known simply as , "the Legion") is a corps of the French Army created to allow List of militaries that recruit foreigners, foreign nationals into French service. The Legion was founded in 1831 and today consis ...

, but was interned again after France capitulated. His next stop was Martinique, where he was also interned, so that he spent a total of over two years in camps. It was not until 1941 that he was able to emigrate to the United States and came to New York. In 1942 he received

American citizenship Citizenship of the United States is a legal status that entails Americans with specific rights, duties, protections, and benefits in the United States. It serves as a foundation of fundamental rights derived from and protected by the Consti ...

. In the summer of 1942 he met the journalist

Dorothy Thompson Dorothy Celene Thompson (July 9, 1893 – January 30, 1961) was an American journalist and radio broadcaster. She was the first American journalist to be expelled from Nazi Germany, in 1934, and was one of the few women news commentators broadc ...

(1893–1961), who he portrayed in her home on the Twin Farms farm in

Barnard, Vermont Barnard is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 992 at the 2020 census. The town has two unincorporated villages: Barnard and East Barnard, along with the hamlets of Newcombsville, Mountain Meadows, and Fort De ...

. About a year later, Dorothy Thompson and Maxim Kopf were married in Barnard. In 1944 he exhibited at the American British Art Center. In the summer of 1945 he visited Prague for the last time with Dorothy Thompson and her son. His last trip to Tahiti took place in April 1952. Kopf died on July 6, 1958, in Lebanon, New Hampshire. He and Dorothy Thompson were buried in Barnard Cemetery.

Exhibitions

Exhibitions with works by Maxim Kopf * 1922: Exhibition "April to April" together with "The Pilgrims" in the Art Association for Bohemia (Czech Krasoumná jednota ) in the

Rudolfinum The Rudolfinum is a building in Prague, Czech Republic. It is designed in the neo-Renaissance style and is situated on Jan Palach Square on the bank of the river Vltava. Since its opening in 1885, it has been associated with music and art. C ...

Prague * 1923: Maxim Kopf exhibition together with "The Pilgrims" in the Art Association for Bohemia in Prague * 1923: Maxim Kopf exhibition together with "The Pilgrims" in Dresden * 1923: Maxim Kopf's joint exhibition at the Art Association for Bohemia in Prague * 1926: Exhibition with Mary Duras at the Salon der Independenten in the Grand Palais in Paris * 1927: Exhibition at the Independent Salon in the Grand Palais in Paris * 1927: Exhibition of Maxim Kopf and Mary Duras in the Haus der Kunst, Prague * 1928: Exhibition with the "Young Art" group in the Rudolfinum Prague * 1928: Exhibition in the Artists' House in Brno * 1929: I. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1930: represented in the exhibition Paintings and Sculptures from Brno Private Collections of the Moravian Art Association in the Brno Artists' House * 1930: II. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1931: Solo exhibition of Maxim Kopf, paintings and drawings in Nuremberg in the German Museum (Sudeten German Art Exhibition) * 1931: III. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1932: Exhibition in Berlin, Hartberg Gallery * 1932: IV. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1933: Exhibition of Willy Nowak, Josef Dobrevsky, Maxim Kopf, Sergius Pauser, Mary Duras, Moravian Art Association, in the Brno Artists' House * 1933: Fifth exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1934: VI. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession": Pictures from Dalmatia, in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1935: Special exhibition: Maxim Kopf, Otto Mlčoch, Ilse Pompe, Trude Schmidl-Wähner, Moravian Art Association, in the Künstlerhaus Brno * 1935: Collective exhibition with Maxim Kopf at the Art Association for Bohemia in Prague * 1935: VII. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1936: VIII exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1937: Maxim Kopf exhibition, at the Art Association for Bohemia, Prague. * 1937: IX. Exhibition of the Association of Visual Artists "Prague Secession" in the Art Association for Bohemia Prague * 1937: represented in the exhibition of Czechoslovak art in the USSR (Moscow, Leningrad) * 1942: Solo exhibition in New York, Wakefield Gallery * 1943: Solo exhibition in New York with Andre Seligmann * 1944: Solo exhibition in New York, American British Art Center * 1947: Solo exhibition in New York, American British Art Center * 1950: Exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Maxim Kopf in New York, Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries * 1953: Exhibition of Maxim Kopf's last paintings in New York, John Heller Gallery

Selected works

Maxim Kopf was a very productive, cosmopolitan painter whose works can be found in Europe and the USA. * Crucifixion (1920), Liberec Regional Gallery * The Pilgrim (1920), National Gallery Prague * Conception (1920–21), National Gallery Prague * Buddha (1920), Liberec Regional Gallery * Religious Theme (1924), Narodní památkový ústav (NPÚ) Prague, Hořovice Castle * After the bath (1930), private collection * View of Prague (1937), Gallery of the Capital Prague * Vision (1920), National Gallery Prague * Lovers (1925), Gallery Zlatá Husa Prague * Portrait of the sculptor Mary Duras at work (1928), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg * Dance Bar (1920), Liberec Regional Gallery * Tupuraa, Tahiti (1934), private collection * Tahiti (1934), Zlatá Husa Gallery Prague * Times Square (1924), National Gallery PragueHabánová (2013), p. 340 * Columbus Circle (1924–25) (lost) * Holy Communion (1921)Askart - Maxim Kopf
(engl.), retrieved 1 September 2023. * Montrouge (1927) * Portrait of Mary Duras (1928) * Falkenau coal mine (1929) * Self-Portrait (1929), Kunstforum Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg * Tahitian women * New York (1941–42) * The Beachcomber * Farewell (The Farewell) A large number of his works were represented at art auctions.

Collections

Works by Maxim Kopf are represented in the following collections: * Everson Museum of Art *

Hood Museum of Art The Hood Museum of Art is an art museum owned and operated by Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. The first reference to the development of an art collection at Dartmouth was in 1772, making the collection among the oldest and largest, a ...

Memorial Art Gallery The Memorial Art Gallery is a civic art museum in Rochester, New York. Founded in 1913, it is part of the University of Rochester and occupies the southern half of the University's former Prince Street campus. It is a focal point of fine arts ac ...

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in New York *

Saint Louis Art Museum The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) is an art museum located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. With paintings, sculptures, cultural objects, and ancient masterpieces from around the world, its three-story building stands in Forest Park in ...

National Gallery Prague The National Gallery Prague (, NGP), formerly the National Gallery in Prague (), is a state-owned art gallery in Prague, which manages the largest collection of art in the Czech Republic and presents masterpieces of Czech and international fine a ...

* Liberec Regional Gallery *

Moravian Gallery in Brno The Moravian Gallery in Brno () is the second largest art museum in the Czech Republic, established in 1961 by the merging of two older institutions. It is in five buildings: Pražák Palace, Governor's Palace, Museum of Applied Arts, Jurkovič ...

Miscellaneous

Kopf created an Ex Libris (bookplate) for Dorothy Thompson . It shows a female figure walking over a devil figure, carrying a book in her raised hands.Exlibris: Dorothy Thompson
als PDF-Datei, retrieved 1 September 2023.

References

External links

Works cited

* Anna Habánová: Mladí lvi v kleci - Umělecké skupiny německy hovořících výtvarníků z Čech, Moravy a Slezska v meziválečném období (Young lions in the cage - artist groups of German-speaking artists from Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia in the interwar period). Arbor Vitae Řevnice, Liberec Regional Gallery, 2013, , pp. 438 pages. * Anna Habánová: Dějiny uměleckého spolku Metznerbund v Čechách 1920–1945 (history of the Metznerbund art association in Bohemia 1920–1945), Technical University of Liberec, 2017, , 368 pages. * M. Knedlik: Head, Maxim . In: General artist lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 81, de Gruyter, Berlin 2014, , p. 295 f.
Anna Habánová: Liberec jako centrum německo-českého výtvarného umění v první polovině 20. století (Reichenberg as a center of German-Bohemian fine art in the first half of the 20th century). Dissertation, Masarykova univerzita Brno, 2012, 241 pages, as a PDF file, accessed on 1 September 2023

Ivo Habán: Fenomén německo-českého výtvarného umění 20. století The Pilgrims, Young Art, Prague Secession. Pražská scéna a paralelní centra německy hovořících umělců v meziválečném Československu (The phenomenon of German-Czech visual art of the 20th century - The Pilgrims, Young Art, Prague Secession - The Prague scene and parallel centers of German-speaking artists in interwar Czechoslovakia). Dissertation, Masarykova univerzita Brno, 2012, 257 pages, as a PDF file, accessed on 1 September 2023
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kopf, Maxim 1892 births 1958 deaths Artists from Vienna Austrian artists Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I American male artists American sculptors