Frieda Gertrud Riess

Frieda Gertrud Riess (1890 – c. 1955) was a German portrait photographer in the 1920s with a studio in central Berlin.[1]

Early life

Riess was born in Czarnikau in the Prussian Province of Posen where her Jewish parents Emil Reiss and Selma (nee Schreyer) were shopkeepers. At the end of the 1890s, her widowed mother moved the family to Berlin where Frieda first studied sculpture under Hugo Lederer (c. 1907) and later (1913) photography at the Berlin "Photographischen Lehranstalt" of the Lette-Verein, receiving her diploma in the summer of 1915.[1]

Career

In 1918, she opened a business on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin; it became one of the most popular studios in the city. Partly as a result of her marriage to the journalist Rudolf Leonhard in the early 1920s, she extended her clientele to celebrities such as playwright Walter Hasenclever, novelist Gerhart Hauptmann and actors and actresses including Tilla Durieux, Asta Nielsen and Emil Jannings. This group extended to include dancers, music-hall stars and fine artists: Anna Pavlova, Mistinguett, Lil Dagover, Renée Sintenis, Max Liebermann and Xenia Boguslawskaja. Other clients included representatives of the old aristocracy, diplomats, politicians and bankers. Boxers (and nudes thereof) were a notable group in which she specialised, including Erich Brandl, Hermann Herse, Max Schmeling, Ensor Fiermonte.[2]

Such was her renown that she became known simply as Die Reiss. While on a trip to Italy in 1929, she was invited to photograph Benito Mussolini.

In addition, she contributed to the journals and magazines of the day including Die Dame, Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, Der Weltspiegel, Querschnit and Koralle.[3][4]

Move to Paris

In 1932, after falling in love with Pierre de Margerie, the French ambassador in Berlin(1922-31). She moved to Paris with him, and he died in 1942. She disappeared from the public eye during the Occupation. Even the date of her death cannot be clearly established and her place of burial remains unknown.[5]

Exhibitions

References

  1. "Berlinische Galerie widmet sich der einst hochgeschätzten und heute vergessenen Berliner Fotografin Frieda Riess: Bildniskunst zwischen Tradition und Moderne", Kunstmarkt.com. (in German) Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  2. Nero, Julie. ""ENGAGING MASCULINITY WEIMAR WOMEN ARTISTS AND THE BOXER"". Woman's Art Journal,Spring/Summer 2014.
  3. Marc Peschke, "Wiederentdeckt: Die Fotografin Frieda Riess", Photoscala. (in German) Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  4. "Frieda Riess", Weimar. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  5. "Die Lichtbildhauerin", Die Zeit, 8 August 2008. Retrieved 7 March 2013.
  6. Nicola Kuhn, "Zum Tee ins Atelier", Der Tagesspiegel, 5 June 2008. (in German) Retrieved 7 March 2013.

Further reading

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