Biography Louise Stomps 1900 - 1988

1900

Louise Stomps was born on 5 November 1900 in Berlin. She was the second child of Otto Stomps, a lawyer, and his wife Else Stomps, née Kempff. Wilhelm II was German Emperor until 1918. From 1910 the family lived in their own house in Lichterfelde-Ost. Her brother was the writer and publisher Victor Otto Stomps (known as VauO or V.O.), born in Krefeld in 1897.

1917

Louise Stomps graduates from the Elisabeth Lyceum in Berlin (Lichterfelde-Ost). She makes her first animal sculptures.

1918

Attends a girls' boarding school in Feldafing on Lake Starnberg (Bavaria).

1920

Married Hans Becker, an engineer ten years her senior.

1921

Birth of her daughter Inge (who died in 2003).

[Child portrait of daughter Inge, around 1925, height 22,5 cm, plaster]

1922

Birth of her daughter Annemarie (who died in 2013).

The year 1922 also marked the beginning of the hyperinflation in Germany, which reached its peak in the year 1923.

1927

Divorce after a period of separation - Stomps adopts her birth name again. Predominantly she works at this time in plaster, but there are also first works in stone.

[Seated woman, 1928, height 27 cm, grenn sandstone]
[Seated woman, 1930's, height 17 cm, plaster, coloured]

1928

Evening sculpture class given by Johannes Röttger at the 'Hochschule für Bildende Künste' in Berlin. Attends Milly Steger's sculpture class at the 'Verein Berliner Künstlerinnen'. First wood sculptures. Member of the Association of Berlin Women Artists 1928-1943.

1930

Death of her father. She creates the gravestone sculpture Mother Earth for her father's grave in the Berlin-Zehlendorf cemetery. Also buried there are her brother V.O. Stomps, her daughter Inge and herself.

[Vestal virgin, 1932, height 197 cm, oak | private collection]

[Mother Earth, around 1930, height 128 cm, granite stone]

1930-33

First exhibitions. Begins friendship with the sculptor Lidy von Lüttwitz (1902 - 1996). Temporary sharing of a studio.

[Portrait Lidy von Lüttwitz, 1933, height 35 cm, plaster | location unknown]

1930's

Occasional participation in the regulars' table of the Rabenpresse (1926-1937), the publishing house of her brother Victor Otto Stomps. Together with Ludwig Meidner, Paul Steegmann, Luigi Malipiero and others.

from 1933

Because of her deep disapproval of the Nazi regime, Stomps was forced into internal emigration. This period is characterised by frequent changes of studio.

1936

The works of Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz are removed from the anniversary exhibition of the Academy of Arts and deemed as "unacceptable". Out of solidarity, Stomps decided not to exhibit any more.

[The pair, 1937, height 45,5 cm, oak | Berlinische Galerie, Berlin]

1937

Visits the Paris World Fair with Lidy von Lüttwitz and the painter Else Driessen.

[Mother with child, 1937, height 170 cm, oak | the sculpture is exposed on permanent loan in the Museum Wiesbaden]

1938/39

Thanks to her brother V.O. Stomps, she meets the painter, collector, patron and art dealer Hanna Bekker vom Rath (1893-1983). Between 1940 and 1943, Bekker vom Rath secretly exhibited the work of ostracised artists in her Berlin studio on Regensburger Strasse.
In 1947, Bekker vom Rath opened her gallery Frankfurter Kunstkabinett with an exhibition of prints by Käthe Kollwitz.

[Portrait Hanna Bekker vom Rath, 1966, height 35 cm, bronze cast | Stadtmuseum Hofheim am Taunus]

1940

After the first bombing raids in Berlin, Louise Stomps rents a small cottage in the Berlin suburb of Caputh as an emergency accommodation and buries many of her works there.

[Sitting woman, 1939, height 52,5 cm, marble]

1943

Her apartment at Achenbachstrasse 3 (Berlin-Wilmersdorf) was completely destroyed in a bombing raid on 3 November 1943, as was her studio at Neue Grünstrasse 40 (Berlin-Mitte) on 23 November 1943. Loss of most of the works created until then.

1945

Louise Stomps is supposedly denounced and imprisoned for six weeks in the Soviet zone on false suspicion of contact with the Nazi regime.
In August, the 'Galerie Rosen' opens in Berlin. The formerly ostracised artists were finally able to exhibit again. Louise Stomps takes part in the 3rd exhibition in October/November "Sculpture and Sculptural Drawings", together with Paul Dierkes, Karl Hartung, Gottfried Kappen, Gustav Seitz, Renée Sintenis, Christian Theunert, Hans Uhlmann.
Her studio is now at Schillerstraße 21 in Berlin-Charlottenburg, and her apartment since 1946 has been at Giesebrechtstraße 9.

1946

Participates in the 1st German Art Exhibition at the Zeughaus Unter den Linden in Berlin.
Participates in the exhibition at the Galerie Rosen in August.
She is the only female sculptor represented with one of the 12 original prints in the Rosen Gallery's graphic portfolio 'Graphic 1946'.

[Crouching woman, 1946, height 95 cm, wood | private collection]

Foto Zeughaus: Miguel Hermoso Cuesta, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

1947

Participation in the travelling exhibition of the Galerie Rosen in Berlin, Hamburg and Stuttgart. In August exhibition at the Galerie Rosen: "Louise Sophie Stomps - Sculptures" (together with oil paintings and watercolours by Hans Kuhn). In winter participation in the annual exhibition of the Galerie Rosen. Represented in the "Almanach 1947" of the Galerie Rosen.

1947/48

The Magistrate of Berlin buys the oak sculpture "The Couple", now in the National Gallery in Berlin.

[The pair, 1938, height 120 cm, oak]

1949

Exhibition at the Galerie Franck in Frankfurt am Main.
Apartment and studio in the basement of her house, Teichstraße 10, Berlin-Zehlendorf.

[Small standing woman, 1948, height 48,5 cm, wood]

1950

Attends the constituent meeting of the Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Berlin. She receives membership card no. 3. Other women artists include Hannah Höch, Renée Sintenis, Augusta von Zitzewitz.

1951

Louise Stomps receives the 1951 Art Prize of the City of Berlin.

[Mourning figure, 1951, height 20 cm, alder | private collection]

1952

Competition "The Unknown Political Prisoner" organised by the Institute of Contemporary Art, London; Louise Stomps is shortlisted with the proposal "The Admonisher" and receives an "honourable mention" and a prize of 25 pounds sterling in 1953.

[The Admonisher, 1952, height 52 cm, plaster | The Admonisher is also made in a version made of marble: 1952, height 36 cm and there are two graphic drafts of the conception and size of the planned monument]

1955

Visit of the 1st Documenta in Kassel.

[Pair, 1950's, height 71 cm, wood, coloured]

ab 1955

Numerous solo exhibitions and participations in exhibitions outside of Berlin, e.g. Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Galerie Günther Franke, Haus der Kunst Munich.

1958

Participation in the "International Monument" competition in Auschwitz.
Purchase of a used BMW police motorcycle with sidecar.

1960

Moves to Rechtmehring, near Wasserburg am Inn. She moves into the Kupfmühle, an old water mill, where she lives very secluded until the end of her life.
She restores the long-neglected house with her own hands and sets up a studio that is open on two levels, making it suitable for large sculptures.

[Aquarell Inge Becker-Schrader (one of her daughters), um 1961, Kumpfmühle vor der Renovierung]

Ende 1960er Jahre

Louise Stomps lives rather secluded in her water mill. However, she makes several trips to Italy on her motorbike, usually with her daughter Inge. The longest trip takes them to Paestum, south of Naples.
She sees her daughter Annemarie, who lived on the outskirts of Berlin in the GDR, only now and then when she visits Berlin.

[Small involvement, about 1965, height 30 cm, wood]

Foto Poseidontempel: Norbert Nagel - Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29359236

1979

The Galerie der Künstler at Maximilianstrasse 42 in Munich is hosting a major solo exhibition by Louise Stomps. Nearly 150 works are on display, including her largest sculpture, The Call, 1977, 4.3 metres high, which has been installed outside the gallery (pictured here with the artist).

[Galaxis, 1979, 260 cm, mountain acacia | could also be seen in this exhibition]

1984

New motorcycle: Yamaha XS 650 with sidecar.

[Consent, 1984, height 92 cm, marble | private collection]

1988

On the 22nd of April, Louise Stomps died as a result of an accident with her motorbike. Her last work is called "The Drop-Out".

[The dropout, 1988, height 143 cm, cherry tree]