Augusta von Zitzewitz was born in Berlin in Prussia. She began her art studies in 1907 in the drawing and painting school of the Association of Women Artists of Berlin. She took lessons from the German-French painter George Mosson and rented her own studio. In 1912 she went to Paris and continued her studies at the Académie Julian. After her return to Berlin, she married the Jewish art historian Erich Römer, and in 1915 she bore a daughter, Ilse-Marie, who became one of her favourite models. Zitzewitz became a member of the Berlin Free Secession, the Hiddensee Association of Women Artists and the Association of German Artists. She showed her works in the exhibitions of the Association of Women Artists of Berlin. From about 1917 onwards, she made woodcuts and illustrations, including for the left-leaning journal “Die Aktion”.
After the National Socialists assumed power in 1933, Zitzewitz attracted their attention because her husband was Jewish. Her works were deemed “degenerate” and were banned, and she was forbidden from working or exhibiting. She remained active in the Association of German Artists until its last annual exhibition in the Kunstverein in Hamburg entitled “Painting and Sculpture in Germany 1936”, which was closed by order of the Nazis’ Imperial Chamber of Art. In 1938, one of her works was removed from the Imperial Ministry of Education. She only returned to painting after the Second World War.
Menu
