Hans Jurgis Preuss (1904–1984) was originally from Koenigsberg. In the 1920’s, he attended the local visual arts school and enrolled in the class of Arthur Degner who was rightfully labeled the conductor of new trends in fine arts and new ideas in town. He was the only expressionist among the school professors and had a tremendous impact on his student’s art and general perception of the world.
Self-portrait with Genja
Creation period
1936
Dimensions
40,2x39,1 cm
Technique
Paper, oil.
Collection
0
Open in app#1
Hans Jurgis Preuss
Self-portrait with Genja
#3
#5
The second person to have had a life-changing effect on Preuss was a German communist and intelligence officer Gertrude Genis. She is the woman next to the artist in the double portrait. After marrying Gertrude, Preuss took to politics. At the age of twenty-two, he joined the communist party and soon, just like his wife, embarked on a double life of spying in favor of the USSR.
The artist and Gertrude travelled all over Europe. Their political struggle took them to new cities and countries where the political tension tended to grow. However, such ultimately intensive pace of life did not get in the way of Preuss’s mastering his profession as a painter while admiring the original paintings by the old masters like Rembrandt, Rubens, Velasquez and others.
#4
Wider audiences always considered him an offbeat artist with a style of his own. In the 1930’s, Preuss exhibited intensively in Paris and won popularity with French critics who named him an 'intimist' artist. This genre painting trend was extremely popular then.
#6
Self-portrait with Genja is a classic example of intimism-inspired art. The artist accentuates his private life and shows himself and his spouse during one of their trips across Europe. The intensity and pace of their life at that time is shown through Preuss’s energetic manner: the massive hasty strokes are put on paper as if made on the go. Their postures, gestures, and glance are all about the transience and subtlety of the precious moments.
#10
The chamber-like mood of the portrait shows through the colors chosen by the painter.
#9
“I want to be surrounded by joyful colours”,
— he wrote in his diary.
#7
Even that Preuss and his spouse led a roving life and moved placed all the time, in this self-portrait Preuss uses mostly warm pastel colors associated with coziness and home.
#11
Before the outbreak of World War II, Preuss and his spouse moved to the USSR, and in 1941, along other German nationals, they were exiled to a Siberian camp where Gertrud Genis died of tuberculosis.
#12
Kaliningrad Regional Museum of Fine Arts
read morehide
00:00
00:00
1x
Self-portrait with Genja
Creation period
1936
Dimensions
40,2x39,1 cm
Technique
Paper, oil.
Collection
0
Point your smartphone camera to open in the appOpen in app
Share
