Dorothea Maetzel-Johannsen
This tranquil image of a woman surrounded by white flowers shows Dorothea Maetzel-Johannsen’s gift for combining calm introspection with modern form.
As a child, the artist suffered from rheumatic joint disease, which led to chronic heart problems. From an early age, she devoted herself intensely to drawing and painting. From 1907 to 1909, she trained as a drawing teacher in Hamburg and subsequently worked at a school in Schleswig. Alongside this, she produced independent works in various stylistic directions.
In 1910, she married the Hamburg architect and painter Emil Maetzel. As a married woman in the Wilhelmine Empire, she was no longer permitted to work as a teacher and was forced to give up her position. From the mid-1920s onward, Maetzel-Johannsen’s art grew lighter and more atmospheric, shaped by time spent in France and her engagement with Impressionism, especially Paul Cézanne. A founding member of the Hamburg Secession, she developed an Expressionist style marked not by aggression, but by harmony, contemplation, and emotional restraint. Her career was cut tragically short in 1930 following surgery due to heart failure, just days after her 44th birthday. Her work was largely forgotten for decades—only to be rediscovered in recent years.
P.S. Share the brilliance of women artists through the ages. The second edition of the Women Artists 50 Postcards Set puts their visions in your hands—each card a subtle celebration of creativity, strength, and inspiration.
P.P.S. Meet another talented German painter, the pioneering Expressionist Paula Modersohn-Becker!