Mela Escherich, née Welzhofer

Born: January 31, 1877 in Munich
died: September 26, 1956 in Wiesbaden

Mela Escherich, whose first name was actually Emilie, like her mother's, was the daughter of the historian Heinrich Welzhofer and the writer and editor Emilie Escherich. Like the latter, she published under her maiden name Escherich.

In Wiesbaden, Mela Escherich first came to prominence as the author of "Nassovia", the "Zeitschrift für nassauische Geschichte und Heimatkunde", the first volume of which appeared in 1900. She wrote short reports on current exhibition events for this magazine, which were published monthly in the first three volumes under the heading "Kunstbriefe". This section was discontinued with the fourth volume in 1903. However, Escherich continued to write longer articles on local art and architecture as well as poems for the magazine.

In 1906, her first verifiable book "Die germanische Weltanschauung in der deutschen Kunst" was published in Berlin in the series "Wissenschaftliche Frauenarbeiten". The publication "Die Schule von Köln" (Strasbourg 1907) emerged from a series of lectures she held in the winter of 1906/07 at the Kunstsalon Vietor in Wilhelmstraße, followed by the work "Das Kind in der Kunst" (Stuttgart 1910), in which she discusses the subject from antiquity to the present day.

She also published in renowned art historical series and specialist journals until the mid-1950s. Escherich's areas of interest spanned several centuries. They ranged from the Middle Ages to the present day. One of her main areas of research was the painting and prints of the German Renaissance. She also studied the influence of mysticism on art and translated "Das fließende Licht der Gottheit", a work by the mystic Mechthild von Magdeburg (around 1207 - 1282), into modern German (Berlin 1909).

She was also present in Wiesbaden's art scene. She was particularly close to the painters Hans Völcker and Alexej von Jawlensky, who lived here and whose works she greatly appreciated. After the collection of the Gemäldegalerie, which was managed by the Nassauischer Kunstverein e.V., was re-catalogued in 1908, Völcker and Escherich were entrusted with reorganizing the collection in 1911/12, according to the annual report. She may have met Jawlensky, who had lived in Nikolasstraße since 1921, in person as early as 1924.

Subsequently, she repeatedly published enthusiastic articles on his art. She also became a member of the "Association of Friends of Alexej von Jawlensky's Art", which had been founded by Hanna Bekker vom Rath in 1929 to provide the impoverished artist with an income. In the end, Escherich's collection included eleven paintings and five drawings by Jawlensky, including the two works "Abstrakter Kopf: Bildnis Mela Escherich" (1927, Catalogue Raisonné, II, 1270) and another "Abstrakter Kopf" with the dedication on the reverse "Für Frl. Mela Escherich in tiefster Verehrung A. v. Jawlensky, 1928" (circa 1927, Catalogue Raisonné, II, 1271). A more extensive publication on Jawlensky, which she had planned, probably never materialized.

In addition to her work as an art historian, Escherich was also active as an author of children's and youth books and novels. In the early 1920s, she published two books for young people, the "Rheinsagen" and the "Hessische Sagen", which she retold, and in the 1930s she published a total of three novels: "Das geschiedene Fräulein", "Der schwarze Domino" and "Der russische Emigrant". After the death of her mother, she moved from Nikolasstraße to Adolfsallee 12 in the spring of 1936.

During her lifetime, Escherich and her work as an art historian and writer were increasingly forgotten. She died without leaving a will and so the works of art that she had collected over the course of her life fell to the state.