Revision 7868353 of "Erwin Bowien" on simplewiki

[[File:Erwin Bowien Selbstbildnis 1920.jpg|thumb|{{center|Erwin Bowien - Self portrait. 1920s}}]]

'''Erwin Johannes Bowien''' (3 September 1899 in [[Mülheim an der Ruhr]] - 3 December 1972 in [[Weil am Rhein]]) was a German painter and poet.

== Life ==
Bowien  grew up in [[Berlin-Charlottenburg]] and later in [[Neuchâtel]] in Switzerland.

As a German citizen, Bowien was drafted on his 18th birthday and had to take part in the First World War in 1917/1918 as an [[interpreter]]. During this time he created, among other things, [[drawing]]s and [[watercolour]]s from the front in the [[forest of Argonne]].

After the war, Bowien initially studied in 1920-1921 at the State Academy of Art in [[Munich]] with Professor [[Robert Engels]]. That  was followed in 1922 by a period of study at the Dresden Academy of Art with Professor [[Richard Müller]] and then training as a drawing teacher at the Staatliche Kunstschule [[Schöneberg]] under [[Philipp Franck]] with art history lessons under [[Oskar Fischel]]. Bowien passed his exams as a work teacher in 1923 in [[Düsseldorf]].<ref name="erwin01">{{cite web |author=Barbara u. Detlef Rahlf |url=http://www.erwin-bowien.de/vita01.htm |title=Erwin Bowien Vita I |work=erwin-bowien.de |date=10 October 2008 |access-date=12 November 2021}}</ref>

Bowien worked from 1925 to 1932 as an art teacher in [[Solingen]] where the later Federal President [[Walter Scheel]] was one of his students. Due to the [[Heinrich Brüning|Brüning's]] emergency decree, he had to leave the school service. At this time, he regularly visited the artist and literary salon of Erna and Hanns Heinen, from which a lifelong friendship with the family grew. The daughter of the Heinen family, [[Bettina Heinen-Ayech]], became his most important painting student.<ref name="erwin02" />

[[File:Bowien Egmond an Zee 1937.jpg|thumb|300px|{{center|Egmond aan Zee (1937)}}]]
From 1932 to 1942, Bowien lived as a freelance artist in Egmond aan den Hoef, [[North Holland]], in the former house of the philosopher [[René Descartes]]. Besides [[landscape]]s, Bowien painted numerous [[portrait]]s and family pictures for wealthy Dutchmen. The West Frisian Museum in [[Hoorn]] acquired paintings by Bowien, other paintings came by donation into the possession of the [[Rijksmuseum]], the Koninklijk Huisarchiev in The Hague, the Regionaalrchief Alkmaar etc.

In his [[autobiography]], Bowien only hinted that the seizure of power by the Nazis was the reason why he did not return to Germany - politics had caused him "new agonies" every day. "So the pictures I created at that time took on something of a cry. The sea could not be wild enough for me, the clouds not dark enough." After the occupation of the Netherlands by the German [[Wehrmacht]], he was imprisoned for three days in [[Alkmaar]]. He left 35 of his works in the care of an art dealer in [[The Hague]], but they subsequently remained lost.<ref name="erwin02">{{cite web|url=http://www.erwin-bowien.de/vita02.htm |author=Barbara & Detlef Rahlf, Munich |title=Erwin Bowien Vita II |work=erwin-bowien. de |date=10 October 2008|access-date=12 November 2021}}</ref> He first moved to Solingen to live with the Heinen family for six months. There he created a series of city views in watercolour in the winter of 1942, the last cycle of paintings of the city before its destruction in November 1944.<ref name="erwin02" />

Bowien's next stop was [[Augsburg]]. As there were neither [[picture frame]]s nor [[canvas]] to buy because of the War, Bowien had the idea of buying Adolf Hitler portraits and official Nazi propaganda pictures that were on sale everywhere and painting over them with views of Augsburg after applying a new background. The paintings sold well, but he was betrayed to the [[Gestapo]], which confiscated his paintings. Over 30 of them were destroyed by the effects of war. Without valid papers, he fled to [[Allgäu]] in Kreuzthal-Eisenbach. There he wrote his war memoirs.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/title/heures-perdues-du-matin-journal-dun-artiste-peintre-alpes-bavaroises-9-ix-1944-10-v-1945/oclc/54462019&referer=brief_results ''Les heures perdus du Matin'']</ref>

On 3 December 1972 Erwin Bowien died at age 73 in Weil am Rhein where he was also buried.<ref name="erwin-bo-03">{{cite web|url=http://www.erwin-bowien.de/vita03.htm |title=Erwin Bowien III |author=Barbara & Detlef Rahlf, Munich |work=erwin-bowien.de |date=10 October 2008 |access-date=12 November 2021}}</ref>

== Publications ==
* ''Das schöne Spiel zwischen Geist und Welt – Mein Malerleben.'' (Autobiography). Published by Bettina Heinen-Ayech and the Friends of Erwin Bowien, Solingen 1995, {{ISBN|3-88234-101-7}}.
* ''Heures Perdues du Matin, Journal d’un Artiste Peintre, Alpes Bavaroises, 1944–1945.'' Published by Bernard Zimmermann. L’Harmattan, Paris 2000, {{ISBN|2-7475-0040-3}}.

== Further reading ==
* Dokumentation ''Der Kunstmaler Bowien am Ende der Welt'' des Bayerischen Rundfunks, gesendet am Sonntag, den 6. Mai 2012.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20140320232142/http://www.erwin-bowien.de/mitteil/Nr.31.Dezember2010.pdf Mitteilungen des Freundeskreises Erwin Bowien, December 2010]</ref><ref>[http://www.schwaebische.de/region/allgaeu/isny/stadtnachrichten-isny_artikel,-Bayerischer-Rundfunk-dreht-im-Kreuzthal-einen-Film-_arid,5330331.html Bayerischer Rundfunk dreht im Kreuzthal einen Film] schwaebische.de 11. Oktober 2012.</ref>
* Rudi Holzberger: ''Faszination Adelegg: Fluchtpunkt im Allgäu – Erwin Bowien im Kreuzthal.'' Eisenbach 2013, {{ISBN|978-3-00-042789-3}}.
* Sytze van der Zee: Wij overleefden. De laatste ooggetuigen van de Duitse bezetting, Prometheus, Amsterdam 2019, {{ISBN|9789044638424}}.
* Peter J.H. van den Berg. De schilders van Egmond. Zwolle 2021, {{ISBN|978 94 625 83931}}.

== References ==
{{reflist}}

== Other websites ==
* [http://www.erwin-bowien.com Erwin-bowien.com Website]
* Erwin Bowien - Protagonist der Künstlerkolonie "Schwarzes-Haus" - [https://www.schwarzes-haus.com/ www.schwarzes-haus.com.]
* Informationen zu Erwin Bowien finden Sie auch in der [https://www.deutsche-biographie.de/116300167.html#indexcontent German biography]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowien, Erwin}}
[[Category:German painters]]
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:People from North Rhine-Westphalia]]