Karli Sohn-Rethel

Sohn-Rethel was born 8 May 1882, as the third child of the portrait painter Karl Rudolf Sohn and his wife, the artist Else Sohn-Rethel.{{Cite web|last=Böttcher|first=Kirsten|date=2016-06-01|title=Else Sohn-Rethels Memoiren, Das Turbulente Leben einer Künstlergattin|trans-title=Else Sohn-Rethel's Memoirs, The Turbulent Life of an Artist's Wife|url=https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/kultur/radiotexte/else-sohn-rethels-lebenserinnerungen-100.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818021213/https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/kultur/radiotexte/else-sohn-rethels-lebenserinnerungen-100.html|archive-date=2016-08-18|access-date=2020-08-10|website=Radio Bayern 2, Kultur}} His mother was the daughter of the painter Alfred Rethel. His father was the son of Karl Ferdinand Sohn. His older brothers were the painters Alfred Sohn-Rethel, the father of the philosopher Alfred Sohn-Rethel, and Otto Sohn-Rethel. His younger sister Mira was married to the painter Werner Heuser.

He studied at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Düsseldorf Art Academy) where he graduated in 1903, and that same year in spring he continued his studies at Dresden Academy of Fine Arts. At Dresden he studied under Carl Bantzer, and Gotthardt Kuehl.{{Cite web|title=Karli Sohn-Rethel - Fine Art Auctions|url=https://www.fine-art-auctions.com/karli-sohn-rethel-1882.php|access-date=2020-08-15|website=www.fine-art-auctions.com}}{{Better source|date=August 2020}}

After he completed his training, he traveled to Rome to meet up with his brother Otto, his brother-in-law Werner Heuser, and artists Karl Hofer, Hermann Haller and Maurice Sterne. Sohn-Rethel was in Rome from 1906 until 1912. In 1911, Karli Sohn-Rethel joined the Sonderbund group with other Düsseldorf painters.{{Better source|date=August 2020}} These painters included Julius Bretz, Max Clarenbach, August Deusser, Walter Ophey, Wilhelm Schmurr, and his brothers Otto Sohn-Rethel and Alfred Sohn-Rethel.{{Cite book|title=Sonderbund westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler|publisher=Kunsthalle Düsseldorf|year=1911|trans-title=Sonderbund of West German Art Friends and Artists}}{{Cite book|last=Selz|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Sy8MmOU3ZYC&pg=PA246|title=German Expressionist Painting|publisher=University of California Press|year=1957|location=Berkeley, California|pages=246|language=en|lccn=57-10501}}{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/internationaleku00sond|title=Internationale Kunstausstellung des Sonderbundes Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler zu Cöln, 1912|date=1912|publisher=Cöln a. Rhein: M. Dumont Schauberg|others=Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Library}} From this experience, he joined Alfred Flechtheim's gallery.{{Cite web|date=1919|title=Collection Online, Flechtheim Gallery|url=https://sammlung-online.berlinischegalerie.de:443/eMP/eMuseumPlus?service=ExternalInterface&module=collection&objectId=245902&viewType=detailView|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Berlinische Galerie|language=de}}

From October 1912 to May 1914, Sohn-Rethel traveled and painted with his friend Maurice Sterne, they visited Tunis, Tunisia; Varanasi, India; Mandalay, Burma; Java, Indonesia; and Bali.{{Cite book|url=http://www.harwoodmuseum.org/assets/file/2017materials/Reports_1.pdf|title=Report, Maurice Sterne|publisher=Harwood Museum|pages=11}}{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} He returned to Europe and it was the beginning of World War I, and he stayed in Munich. In 1919 he joined the art Young Rhineland art group.{{Cite web|date=2006|title=Das Junge Rheinland, vorlaufer, freunde, nachfolger|trans-title=The Young Rhineland, forerunners - friends - successors|url=http://www.eifel-und-kunst.de/homepage/kuenstler/pitt-kreuzberg/html/artikel/103_das-junge-rheinland2006.htm|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Pitt Kreuzberg|language=De}} He took part in the opening of the Galerie Alfred Flechtheim that same year, in 1919.

After the end of World War I, he moved in 1920–1921 to Positano, Italy and socialized with Walter Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, Ernst Bloch, and Alfred Kantorowicz.{{Cite web|last=Romito|first=Matilde|title=Artisti tedeschi e russi esuli a Positano nella prima met del Novecento|trans-title=German and Russian artists exiled to Positano in the first half of the twentieth century|url=http://www.comune.positano.sa.it/risorse/la_citta/storia/Schede%20Biografiche.pdf|website=www.comune.positano.sa.it}} Sohn-Rethel emigrated to Italy during the Nazi occupation of Germany, around 1933.{{Cite web|last=Glasmacher|first=Peter|date=2019-12-01|title=Lebendig und besessen, von furchtbarer Energie|trans-title=Alive and Possessed, of Terrible Energy|url=https://rotary.de/kultur/lebendig-und-besessen-von-furchtbarer-energie-a-15225.html|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Rotary magazine|language=de}} He stayed with his painter friend Kurt Craemer in Positano, Italy, a city he had visited earlier in 1920.{{Cite book|last=Romito|first=Matilde|url=http://www.pandemos.it/documenti/Positano_Arte_e_Storia1.pdf|title=La Pittura Di Positano Nel '900|publisher=Pandemos Srl, Comune di Positano|year=2011|isbn=978-88-87744-43-9|trans-title=The Painting of Positano in the 1900s|access-date=2020-08-10}}

In 1959, Sohn-Rethel moved back to Düsseldorf, Germany, where he died on 7 April 1966. He is buried at Nordfriedhof Düsseldorf cemetery.

WWII would destroy much of his works although some of his works survived. These surviving paintings are held at the Suermondt-Ludwig and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum. His work is in various public museum collections including Provincial Art Gallery of Salerno,{{Cite web|title=Collezione storico-artistica|url=http://www.culturaitalia.it/opencms/museid/viewItem.jsp?language=it&case=&id=oai:culturaitalia.it:museiditalia-coll_585|access-date=2020-08-11|website=Museid italia - Cultura Italia: Pinacoteca Provinciale di Salerno|language=it}} among others.

Sohn-Rethel's early works were inspired by the works of artists Cezanne and Matisse. Later in life he created his own expressionist style. His style of painting was influenced by the abstract human figure in his landscape studies. He often rendered people's faces as abstract ovals. During his time living in Positano, he often depicted fishermen on the beach and groups of locals in his paintings.Iris Marzik: Eine Einführung in das Leben und Werk von Karli Sohn-Rethel. In: Karli Sohn-Rethel 1882–1966. Gemälde, Gouachen, Zeichnungen. Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg 1988, S. 22

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• [https://exhibitions.univie.ac.at/person/ulan/500106611 Artist: Carl Ernst Sohn-Rethel] in European Paintings and Drawings 1905-1915, Database of Modern Exhibitions (DoME), Institute for Art History at University of Vienna

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Category:1882 births

Category:1966 deaths

Category:German male painters

Category:Painters from Düsseldorf

Category:Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alumni

Category:Dresden Academy of Fine Arts

Category:Düsseldorf school of painting