Kunstverein Coburg: Congratulations from President Macron

The rediscovery of the Franconian painter Dora Hitz at the Coburg Kunstverein has also met with a great international response.

More than 3000 visitors from Germany and abroad were attracted to the retrospective at the Coburg Kunstverein to mark the 100th anniversary of the death of the painter Dora Hitz. The exhibition "Dora Hitz - From Franconia to Romania to the World", which ended on Sunday, May 18, was organized in cooperation with the National Museum Peleș Castle, the National Art Museum of Romania in Bucharest, the University of St. Andrews and the two curators Dr. Macrina Oproiu and Dr. Shona Kallestrup."Being able to stage such a large exhibition with an international reach was a special honor for the Kunstverein Coburg. It placed the Kunstverein visibly in the German museum landscape," says a delighted Natalie Gutgesell, 1st Chairwoman. The rediscovery of the painter Dora Hitz has brought many people to Coburg who were previously unfamiliar with the city, and the exhibition has therefore also been an important tourist factor for the city.

Greetings from Paris

Natalie Gutgesell received the most prominent reaction from the Elysee Palace in Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron sent a letter of congratulations on the exhibition and the 200th anniversary of the Kunstverein.Born in Altdorf near Nuremberg in 1853, the painter Dora Hitz stirred up the Berlin art scene during the imperial era, exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago and became internationally renowned as Romania's first court painter. Nevertheless, the artist fell into oblivion after her death in 1924 - until a Coburg woman rediscovered her.In 2019, Dr. Natalie Gutgesell published the first monograph on the talented art pioneer and committed women's rights activist. As Chairwoman of the Coburg Art Association, the art historian is now presenting this spectacular exhibition about the portrait and still life painter, whom she counts among the most important Impressionists, Symbolists and Expressionists in art history.

Comprehensive catalog

The exhibited works from all creative phases came from 28 private collections in Romania, Germany, England, the USA, Monaco and the Netherlands. Visitors to the exhibition were particularly fascinated by the artist's stylistic diversity. All the works are documented in a comprehensive catalog book, which also contains 16 articles on new aspects of the painter's biography.

The exhibition also focused on the childhood of the daughter of Ansbach drawing teacher Johannes Hitz, who had begun his professional training as a porcelain painter in Coburg in 1825. Dora Hitz studied at the private art school for girls in Munich from 1869. In 1876, Hitz exhibited a genre painting in the Munich Glass Palace, which Queen Elisabeth of Romania purchased and offered her the position of court painter. Dora Hitz later lived in Montmartre in Paris, where she worked with many well-known Impressionists. After a short stay at the Royal Academy of London in 1890 and two years in Dresden, the artist founded her own ladies' painting school in Berlin. Together with Käthe Kollwitz, she became politically involved in women's rights. Hitz was involved in international artists' associations, exhibited regularly at the Salon Paris and took part in the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago.

From June 1 to July 27, the Kunstverein will be showing 101 works by participants and lecturers from the Coburg Summer Academy. Seven art prizes donated by VR-Bank Coburg will once again be awarded at the vernissage.


Original article: Neue Presse, 19.5.2025. ( Source: Kunstverein Coburg: Congratulations from President Macron - Coburg - Neue Presse Coburg )