Dora Hitz. Fighting with the Old for the New

Dora Hitz (1853 – 1924) significantly influenced the art scene in Berlin at the turn of the century as a modern painter. Like Max Liebermann, she was a co-founder of progressive artistic associations. In her works, Hitz found new interpretations and forms of expression for classical, traditionally rooted motifs. This interplay between “the old and the new” runs through her entire oeuvre and is further discussed in the exhibition. Although avant-garde features are evident in her works, her depictions never completely depart from an academic painting style.

With four groups of works – generous loans from museums and private collections – Hitz’s stylistic development is impressively illustrated: from French late Impressionism through Symbolism, she integrated elements of Realism and, through expressionist and ornamental features, formed her own position within the so-called German Impressionism. In doing so, she secured a place in the then-dominant patriarchal art system.

Berlin was the central and final station in the life of this artist, who was networked across Europe. The 100th anniversary of her death on 20 November 2024, provides the occasion for this first monographic exhibition in 99 years. Around 1900, Hitz was one of the most respected German female painters, yet her work and life fell into oblivion. By 1925, it was already said:

“The youngest generation asks: Who was Dora Hitz? […] But overlooking the great revolution in modern art, this painting appears like a gentle legend. Yet Dora Hitz once stood in the front row of those who fought with the old for the new.”

(Fritz Schotthöfer: Dora Hitz, in: Der Bildereinrahmer und Vergolder, no. 5, 3 February 1925)

BIOGRAPHY

Barbara Dorothea Hitz was born on 30 March 1853, in Altdorf near Nuremberg. She was the second child of Anna Elisabetha Hitz, née Meyer, and Johannes Hitz, a drawing teacher at the local teacher training college. Hitz spent her childhood in Ansbach and learned drawing from her father.

MUNICH

As a young woman, Hitz went to Munich. There, she presumably attended the Weber Ladies’ Painting School, an art school for girls run by genre painter Heinrich Stelzner. Later, she also took lessons from the history painter Wilhelm Lindenschmidt the Younger. In 1876, she was discovered by the German Princess Elisabeth zu Wied, who later became the Queen of Romania, at the Art and Industry Exhibition in Munich. Impressed by the exhibited flower piece, Wied invited Hitz to Romania as a court painter.

BUCHAREST / SINAIA

In Romania, Dora Hitz became the first court painter of the country. She lived in Bucharest and at Peles Castle in Wallachia. For the idyllic castle with 160 rooms located in the Carpathians, she created impressive murals for the music room, which can still be seen there today.

PARIS

Around 1882, Hitz settled in Paris and lived in Montmartre, at L’Impasse Hélène 15, now Rue Hégésippe Moreau. In the French metropolis, she continued her artistic education. There, she made valuable contacts not only with German artists like Carl Bantzer, Paul Baum, Karl Köpping, and cultural figures like Hermann Bahr, but also with French painters like Edmond François Aman-Jean. She took lessons from Luc-Olivier Merson, Gustave Courtois, Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant, and Eugène Carrière. Hitz also traveled back to Romania to fulfill her ongoing commissions from the royal court. Her further artistic travels took her to Brittany and Normandy, and presumably to London.

DRESDEN

In the early 1890s, Hitz returned to Germany and stayed for a short time in Dresden.

BERLIN

In Berlin, Dora Hitz connected  with the avant-garde. She joined the “Vereinigung der XI” [Association of the XI] and became a founding member of the “Berlin Secession.” Initially, she lived at Hardenbergstraße 24, later opening her own painting school at Lützowplatz 12. There, she trained artists like Sophie Meyer-Schocken, with whom she likely traveled to Paris. She was also a member of the “Association of Berlin Women Artists and Art Lovers,” the “German Artists’ Association,” and later the “Free Secession.” When the “Women’s Art Association” was founded in 1913, Dora Hitz, along with Käthe Kollwitz and Eugenie Kaufmann, took on the leadership. Her long-time life partner, the artist Maria Henriette Josephine von Brocken (1868 – 1947), accompanied her for many years. They had met in Paris.

Dora Hitz made a name for herself as a portrait painter. Her works were exhibited both abroad and throughout Germany at major exhibitions. Her travels took her across Europe and repeatedly to Italy. In 1906, she became the first woman to win the prestigious Villa Romana Prize.

The First World War brought great uncertainty to the painter’s life. Her health began to deteriorate significantly from 1912 onwards. Dora Hitz passed away on November 20, 1924, in Berlin.