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Zoege von Manteuffel, Kurt, Baron

    Full Name: Zoege von Manteuffel, Kurt, Baron

    Other Names:

    • Baron Kurt Zoege von Manteuffel

    Gender: male

    Date Born: 1881

    Date Died: 1941

    Place Born: Tallinn, Harjumaa, Estonia

    Place Died: Konitz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany

    Home Country/ies: Germany

    Subject Area(s): Baroque, Dutch (culture or style), Dutch Golden Age, and Netherlandish Renaissance-Baroque styles


    Overview

    Scholar of Dutch baroque era and director of Staatliche Kupferstichkabinett in Dresden (1924-1941). Zoege von Manteuffel hailed from an aristocratic north-German/Danish family. He was born in Reval, Russian Empire, which is present-day Tallin, Estonia. He was the son of Gunther Zoege von Manteuffel (1850-1926) and Henriette “Rita” Ramm (Zoege von Manteuffel) (1857-1918). He studied jurisprudence and then art history at the universities of Munich, Berlin and Halle. He wrote a dissertation in Antonio Pisano but focused his research career on Flemish artists. While an assistant to a museum in Aachen, he contributed articles, largerly on those artists, for and edited the Künstlerlexikon under the direction of Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, between 1911-1914. For the 1914-1915 period Zoege von Manteufel was the director of the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence. Zoege von Manteuffel entered the Kupferstichkabinett (graphics collection) of Berlin Museum (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin). He volunteered as a soldier in First World War and was severely wounded in 1918. By the following year he had been named curator of the Graphics collection at the Dresden Museum, Staatliche Kupferstichkabinett (Saxon-State Print Collection) at the Zwinger. He married Alexandra Luis Eveline (Grafin) von Schwerin (1899-1974) in 1923, rising to director of the Graphics department in 1924. Zoege von Manteuffel developed the prints collection into one of the most representative collections in the west. He presided over the donation of the graphics collection of Friedrich Augustus II in 1927. He created exhibitions of the collections throughout his tenure. He turned his attention to the graphic artist Alfred Rethel, preparing a catalogue raisonné. He died unexpectedly while traveling in West Prussia. His son was the art historian Claus Zoege von Manteuffel.


    Selected Bibliography

    [dissertation:] Die Gemälde und Zeichnungen des Antonio Pisano aus Verona. Halle, 1909; Der deutsche Kupferstich von seinen Anfängen bis zum Ende des sechzehnten Jahrhunderts. Munich: H. Schmidt, 1922; Adriaen Brouwer: acht Farbige wiedergaben seiner Werke. Leipzig: E.A. Seemann, s.d.; Pieter Bruegel: Landschaften. Berlin: W. Klein, 1934; Niederländische Meister des 17. Jahrhunderts: Rubens, Rembrandt, Gerard Terborch und Jan Steen, die Künstlerfamilie van de Velde. Bielefeld: Velhagen & Klasing, 1937.


    Sources

    [personal correspondence, Peter Zoege von Manteuffel, October 2009]; [obituaries:] Die Kunst 83 (April 1941) [supplement]: 14; Pantheon 27 (March 1941): 71.




    Citation

    "Zoege von Manteuffel, Kurt, Baron." Dictionary of Art Historians (website). https://arthistorians.info/zoegek/.


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