Adolph Jentsch

Adolph Stephan Friedrich Jentsch (29 December 1888 Dresden – 18 April 1977 Windhoek) was a German-born Namibian artist. He studied at the Dresden Staatsakademie für Bildende Künste (Dresden Art Academy, today's College of Fine Arts) for six years, and used a travel grant award to visit France, Italy, UK and the Netherlands. Jentsch moved to Namibia in 1938 to escape the approaching war and lived there until his death. He travelled extensively in Namibia and eventually settled down near Dordabis, about 60 km from the capital Windhoek. He is one of Namibia's most famous painters.

Life and career Germany Jentsch was the son of a Lutheran church official, Stephan Jentsch, and his wife Adele Rosenthal. He attended the gymnasium of the Brudergemeine Zinzendorf, at Nieski. Six years of further education followed at Dresden's Staatsakademie fϋr Bildende Künste. and joined a group of interior decorators in Czechoslovakia. After the death of Gebhard von Funcke in July 1974 at age 75, Jentsch and Dorothea von Funcke, with whom he had a formal friendship only, moved into a modest house in Windhoek West (26 Bach Street) for the final few years of his life.

In 1975, farm workers at Brack, attempting to smoke out a wasp's nest, started a fire in the rafters of the old barn where Jentsch stored much of his oeuvre in an upright metal filing cabinet. The barn caught fire and burned down, with the result that a large number of his works was lost. His friend, architect Peter Strack, estimated —based on the numbering system that Jentsch used— that Jentsch had painted approximately 6,000 paintings during his lifetime, and that approximately 3,000 (mostly watercolours) were destroyed in the blaze.

Four of Jentsch's watercolours were reproduced in limited editions by his biographer Olga Levinson's son, Orde, in 1975.

Jentsch died of pneumonia in the Windhoek State Hospital on 18 April 1977 at age 88. His longtime friend Dorothea died .

Awards 1913 Königlich-Sächsische Staatsmedaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft. 1958 Order of Merit, First Class, Federal Republic of West Germany. 1962 Medal of Honour for Painting, SA Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns.

Public collections Administration of South West Africa Hester Rupert Art Museum, Graaf-Reinet Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town Johannesburg Art Gallery King George VI Gallery, Port Elizabeth Pietersburg Collection Pretoria Art Museum Pretoria University Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg Rembrandt van Rijn Art Foundation S.A Association of Arts, Windhoek State Museum, Windhoek UNISA University of Stellenbosch William Humphreys Gallery, Kimberley.

Art exhibitions 1938 : Adolph Jentsch's first one-man exhibition in Southern Africa, Windhoek. 1954 : Venice Biennale 1956 : First Quad of South African Art 1958 : Retrospective Exhibition, Windhoek (70th Birthday); South African Exhibition touring Holland, Germany and Belgium. 1960 : Second Quad of South African Art. 1962 : “South West African Artists’, South African National Art Gallery, Cape Town. 1964 : Third Quad of South African Art. 1966 : Republic Fest Exhibition, Pretoria. 1967 : Prestige Exhibition, Johannesburg Art Gallery 1968 : Retrospective Exhibition, SAAA, Windhoek (80th Birthday) 1970/1 : Prestige Exhibition, Pretoria Art Museum 1974 : Retrospective Exhibition, SAAA, Windhoek

Publications Adolph Jentsch. Die Bilder aus der Zigarrenkiste. 2003, by Peter Strack Gallery Magazine, Autumn 1984, Adolph Jentsch — Prayers in Paint by Mark A. Meaker Adolph Jentsch. 1973, by Olga Levinson (biography) Lantern, Vol.3, No.4, April–June, 1954: 'Adolph Jentsch' by Prof. Otto Schröder Lantern, Vol.7, No.1, October, 1957: 'Vyf Kunstenaars uit Suidwes-Afrika' Adolph Jentsch, SWA.: An appreciation with reproductions of watercolours painted by Jentsch in the surroundings of Brack. Essays by Prof. Otto Schröder and Petrus Anton Hendriks, Swakopmund, 1958 (70th anniversary) Our Art, Vol.1: Essay by Prof. Otto Schröder, 1959 Fontein, Vol.1, No.1, 1960: 'Adolph Jentsch' by Petrus Anton Hendriks Art in South Africa by F. L. Alexander, Cape Town, 1962 South West Africa Annual, 1970: 'Jentsch' by Olga Levinson Art and artists of South Africa by Esmé Berman, Cape Town, 1970

Film Jentsch, documentary sound film, 16mm, commissioned by The Friends of the South African National Gallery, Cape Town, 1970. Written and produced by Olga Levinson; filmed by Lewis-Lewis Productions.