Jeanne Mammen
Living simply to paint wildly
From a post about the artist Jeanne Mammen (1890–1976) on the Kulturstiftung der Länder web site (my translation):
Jeanne and Mimi [her sister] went to Berlin and rented a studio in a building behind 29 Kurfürstendamm — it was also where they lived — and continued to work. Jeanne remained in this fourth-floor studio until her death 58 years later: two rooms, a small balcony, a view of the courtyards, with no kitchen, no warm water, and the toilet located halfway up the stairway. What would be considered miserable today was perfect for Mammen in 1919: in the middle of the city she was never far from her subjects, the young, convivial girls and women and their paying companions.
You can take a virtual tour of Mammen’s studio here. I’m intrigued by the rolling bookcase in her bedroom and wish there were more detailed photos of it.
If you are interested in what life was like during the Weimar Republic, see my translation of Hans Ostwald’s A Moral History of the Inflation.