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Europe

Deaf Arts, 1800 - 1900

1799 - 1871: Mathias Stoltenberg (NO)

Mathias Stoltenberg (21 July 1799 – 2 November 1871) was a Norwegian painter. He earned his living mostly as a travelling portrait painter and furniture restorer. His paintings were later rediscovered and presented at the 1914 Jubilee Exhibition in Kristiania.

He lost his sense of hearing as a child, and died in poverty in Vang in 1871.

 

1823 - 1875: Bruno Braquehais, Photographer (FR)

Bruno Braquehais was born in Dieppe, France in 1823. Although records don’t state how he lost his hearing, Braquehais was deaf from a young age. When he was nine years old, he started at the Royal Institute of the Deaf and Mute in Paris. He later found work as a lithographer.

1829 - 1907: Paul Ritter, Painter (DE)

1829 - 1907: Paul Ritter, Painter (DE)

At the age of four, Paul Ritter became deaf due to illness. He became known in particular for his large-format architectural pictures of old Nuremberg with historical figure staffage against the background of the historically faithful architecture of the old town.

1844 -1914: Félix Martin, Sculptor (FR)

Félix Martin was born deaf on June 2, 18441 in a bourgeois family.

1856 - 1937: Paul-François Choppin, Sculptor (FR)

Paul-François Choppin, born in Auteuil on 26 February 1856 and died in Paris (14th arrondissement) on 13 June 1937, was a French sculptor.

He lost his hearing at the age of two and remained deaf and mute throughout his life.

1861 - 1937: George W. Veditz, First Person to Film Sign Language (ASL)

1861 - 1937: George W. Veditz, First Person to Film Sign Language (ASL)

In 1904, Veditz became president of the National Association of the Deaf (NAD). He had strong opinions about preserving sign language, so during his years as president he worked closely with Oscar Regensburg, the first chairman of NAD's Motion Picture Fund Committee to produce some of the earliest films that recorded sign language.

Consequently, these videos are some of the most significant documents in deaf history. 

1869 - 1943: Fernand Hamar, Sculptor (FR)

Fernand Joseph Job Hamar, born 15 July 1869 in Vendôme and died 10 March 1943 in Paris, was a French sculptor.

During the Franco-Prussian war of 1870, between the Battle of Orleans (1870) and the Battle of Le Mans, the Prussian army pushed the Army of the Loire around Le Temple. The noise of the cannons caused the deafness of Fernand Hamar, according to his family. Around his tenth birthday, he entered the Institut National de Jeunes Sourds de Paris.

1870-1950: Peder Christian Pedersen, Painter (DK)

Peder Christian Pedersen was born on 12-10-1870 and died on 11-5-1950 in Aalborg. Ship paintings and other maritime environments were his specialty.

Slava Raškaj's bust in Zagreb

1877 - 1906: Slava Raškaj, Painter (Croatia)

Slava Raškaj (2 January 1877 – 29 March 1906) was a Croatian painter, considered to be the greatest Croatian watercolorist of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Being deaf ever since her birth, due to the difficulties in communication, she gradually withdrew from people, but not before her talent was noticed.

Her works have been exhibited since 1898 in art pavilions of Zagreb, Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It was the best part of her short career when most valuable works were done, especially those painteid in this very Garden, by the ponds. A series of paintings of water lilies (‘Lopoci’) are considered as a sort of a hallmark of this great artist.

Bust of Slava Raškaj in Nazorova Street in Zagreb.

1893 - 1975: Gustinus Ambrosi, Sculptor (AT)

1893 - 1975: Gustinus Ambrosi, Sculptor (AT)

"The later sculptor and poet Gustinus Ambrosi, born on February 24, 1893, lost his hearing in 1900 as a result of meningitis."

"In 1913 the sculptor, who was considered brilliant at an early age, received a state studio for life in Vienna and from that year attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna."

 

1894 -1960: Kazimierz Wiszniewski (PL), Graphic Designer

1894 -1960: Kazimierz Wiszniewski (PL), Graphic Designer

Kazimierz Wiszniewski was an excellent graphic designer and artist who commemorated the beauty of Polish landscape and Polish architecture in his works.

The art of Kazimierz Wiszniewski is also a very important part of the history of the deaf community in Poland.