Joseph, Mely (eg. Melanie Jeanette)

painter

born: 14.08.1886 in Pforzheim

died: 14.01.1920 in Berlin

Joseph, the sister of the Jewish architect Rudolph Joseph, received her first training from the painter Eva Hoyer, who had a studio in Wiesbaden; she traveled to Italy with her in 1903. She also studied at Hans Völcker's painting school, the Kunstgewerbeschule in Mainz and the Städelsche Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt. In 1913, Joseph traveled to Palestine via Italy. At times she planned to emigrate there. On her way back, she visited the Secession in Vienna, where she came into closer contact with the decorative arts.

After her return, she worked in the studio of the Viennese Emanuel Josef Margold in Darmstadt on the Mathildenhöhe and took part in an exhibition of embroidered pictures there in 1914. The outbreak of the First World War put an end to her plans for Palestine. In 1917, she studied under Adolf Hölzel in Stuttgart. In the same year, she exhibited together with Adam Antes, Max Clarenbach and Hans Drexel at the Nassauischer Kunstverein e.V. in Wiesbaden and showed her works together with Joseph Eberz at Ludwig Schames' art salon in Frankfurt.

In 1918, she undertook a trip to Finland. She then moved to Berlin, where she worked on miniatures, carpet designs and illustrations, including for Gottfried Keller's "Seven Legends", during the revolutionary years. During this time, she was represented by the Emil Richter art salon in Dresden, where the painters of the "Brücke" and Käthe Kollwitz also exhibited.

She retired voluntarily in 1920; in the same year, a memorial exhibition was dedicated to her at the Nassauischer Kunstverein. In addition to oil paintings and lithographs, illustrations, sculptures and embroideries were also on display. Only very few of her complete works have survived.