Constructing Identity: Elena Luksch-Makowsky, Motherhood, Nationalism, and Women Artists in Germany, 1900–1947

Abstract

The artist Elena Luksch-Makowsky (1878–1967) is one of the earliest modern women artists to create a self-portrait pregnant (1901). However, in the painting, she presents herself in the midst of creating another artwork, highlighting her artistic identity above her imminent role as a mother. The struggle between these two identities was central to her work throughout her career. Elena Makowsky was born and received her academic training in Saint Petersburg. In 1900, she married Richard Luksch and moved to Vienna, where she was invited into the Viennese Secession by Gustav Klimt. Her unique artistic talent applied to themes of renewal and rebirth, as well as her unique Russian inspirations, fortified her presence in Vienna. However, after a move to Hamburg in 1908, she gradually lost her connections to her artistic circle, and, after World War I and the Russian Revolution of 1917, to her family and homeland. She was further ostracized from Hamburg society because of her fervent Russian nationalism through the war, and divorce from her husband in 1921. Most recent scholarship suggests that her career ended shortly after her move to Hamburg, ignoring her continued artistic production through the Weimar, Nazi, and Post-World War II periods, until her passing in 1967. However, as a single mother, Luksch-Makowsky continued to work to support herself and her three children, adapting her relationship with motherhood and her Russian identity to the artistic trends and ideals of the times. This thesis traces key works in the artist’s later German production with a focus on the theme of motherhood, from pre-World War I discourse on the Woman Question, to post-Russian revolution nationalism, to the construction of the German mother and an Aryan bloodline through the late Weimar Republic and Nazi regime, to a return to Russian iconography after World War II. By presenting the methods of Luksch-Makowsky’s constructed identification, this project shows how marginalized women artists in Germany negotiated the increasingly hostile and oppressive environment of fervent nationalism, sexism, and fascist dictatorship.