More Seilers: Anita and Rudolf

Note: This post has been updated and revised in light of new information supplied by Anita A. Larenz, Willy Seiler's daughter, and Werner R. Seiler, Rudolf Seiler's son.

In a prior post, I discussed the life and career of the painter-etcher Willy Seiler.  He and his wife Marie (nicknamed Mariette) had a daughter, Anita Anna Marie Seiler (1933- ).  She was responsible for the hand-coloring on some of her father's colored etchings, but she was an artist and printmaker in her own right.

Photo of Anita Seiler from Pacific Stars & Stripes (Sept. 16, 1955)

Courtesy of Merrill Holmes

Anita Larenz, nee Seiler, was born on July 22, 1933.  A September 16, 1955 Pacific Stars & Stripes profile of Anita Seiler reported that she born in Kobe and that she had lived her entire life to date in Japan except for an around-the-world tour when she was five.  Anita Larenz, however, told me that this is incorrect.   Her family left Japan in November 1933 as soon as she and her mother were in a condition to travel, and did not return until 1937.   This is corroborated by some Internet sleuthing courtesy of Merrill Holmes, who has turned up passenger lists showing that the Seiler family left Japan in November 1933 for Dresden by way of California and Mexico.

 
During WWII, Anita was enrolled in the Deutsche Schule in Ômori, a residential section of Tokyo.

 

Anita Seiler (bottom center) at the Deutsche Schule (Nov. 1940)

Anita Seiler (top center) at the Deutsche Schule (c. 1940)

Little Mother (c. late 1940s to early 1950s) by Willy Seiler

(hand-colored etching)

There are rumors on the Internet that the model for Willy Seiler's etching "Little Mother" was his daughter, something that Anita Lorenz says is simply not so.  There are also rumors that Willy Seiler had a Eurasian daughter born out of wedlock who might be depicted in this etching, but Anita Lorenz says that reports of such a step-sister are completely unfounded.

First Snow by Anita Seiler

(colored woodblock print)

Anita Seiler was raised to speak German and Japanese, and later learned English and French.  According to the Pacific Star & Stripes profile, she started to make woodblock prints in 1953, but preferred to paint in oils.  She favored landscapes, such as Mt. Fuji, in her Western-style paintings, but also painted portraits and special subjects for her predominantly North-American patrons. 

 

Anita Lorenz told me that she painted the original watercolors or watercolors with gouache on which her woodblock prints were based, but that she used professional Japanese carvers and printer to produce her prints.  Unfortunately, she can no long recall the name of the publisher that she used.  Besides "First Snow", the only other woodblock print by Anita Seiler designed was called "Onbu."  As Anita recalls, they were printed in very small editions of likely thirty copies or less.

 

Onbu [Woman Carrying Baby on Her back]
(colored woodblock print)

Personal Collection

Folder for Anita Seiler's Woodblock Prints

Personal Collection

Anita's parents divorced when she was a teenager.  As part of the divorce settlement, her mother Marie received some of her father's work, which she would set in the lobby of some Tokyo hotel.  Anita said her mother sold some of her prints there too, but that making woodblock prints for commercial sale was not something that she ever seriously pursued.

A set of six postcards by Anita Seiler is also known to exist, very much in the style of her father's work.  They were based on drawings, not etchings.  Unlike her father and uncle, Anita never made any etchings of her own.
 

The Blacksmith (71-12)

(Personal Collection)

(postcard)

Painting Pottery (72-12)

(Personal Collection)

(postcard)

Relaxing (73-12)

(postcard)

 

 Lunch Hour (74-12)

(Personal Collection)

(postcard)

Temple Writer (75-12)

(Personal Collection)

(postcard)

Slurping Noodles (76-12)

(Personal Collection)

(postcard)

Because she was not raised to speak English as a child, Anita enrolled in a language program at Sophia University in Tokyo.  She then studied art for four years at Tokyo University of the Arts Ueno Park School.  She was set to get her Master's degree at the Sorbonne in Paris, but her fiance Peter Lorenz did not want them to wait to get married.  The demands of subsequently raising four children left little time for a painting career.   The Lorenz family left Japan in 1960, and Anita's last child was born in California.  After living for a time in places such as San Francisco and Philadelphia, by 1963 or so the Lorenz family had moved to the Sunshine State.  She lives today in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Wood Carver by Rudolf Seiler

Personal Collection

(colored etching)

Rudolf Seiler's etching career has been unfairly overlooked, in large part because his etchings tend to be erroneously attributed by galleries and collectors to either Willy Seiler or his daughter Anita.  Rudolf Seiler (1898-1982) was Willy's older brother by five years.  Like Willy, Rudolf was born in Radebeul, near Dresden.  In 1937 Rudolf decided to go to Japan, a decision which prompted Willy to follow him for his own second trip to Japan.  Rudolf married Chièko Kasahara (an oil painter) in 1937, and had two children, Gisela (born in 1939) and Werner (born in 1944).

 

 Chièko, Gisela, and Rudolf Seiler in Kobe (1941)

Copyright owned by Werner Seiler

 

Rudolf was known as the "Water" Seiler because he painted watercolors, whereas Willy was known as the "Oil" Seiler because he preferred to work in oils.  Whereas Willy stayed "Western," Rudolf adopted a distinctly Japanese style.   By 1950, he had begun to make etchings, producing roughly 3-4 etchings a year.

Werner R. Seiler told me that Willy and Rudolf were total opposites.  Rudolf was quiet, helpful (especially to the foreign Jews), had many Japanese friends including members of the Emperor's family, and was an active and outspoken opponent of the Nazis since 1933.  Willy was loud, conceited, disrespectful (especially to the Japanese), prone to using other people's money, and a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.  Anita Lorenz, however, disputes this characterization; while acknowledging that her father could be loud and short tempered, she says he was against the War, that he was not antisemitic, that he had many Jewish friends, and that he later married (or else had a common law marriage with) a Jewish concentration camp survivor.  She also notes Willy also knew members of the Emperor's family, and that the Emperor's brother visited her house in the late 1930s and gave Willy Seiler a scroll.

 

During WWII, when the German Embassy had confiscated the Rudolf Seiler family's passports, they were told that "after the final victory, we would be sent back to Germany where we will be taken care of!"  In 1944, the Rudolph Seiler family, then living in Tokyo, were evacuated to Karuizawa.

 

Rudolf, Gisela,Werner, and  Chièko Seiler in Karuizawa  (1946)

Copyright owned by Werner Seiler

 

At the end of WWII, all Germans who had not been NSDAP members or supporters were told that they would be allowed to stay in Japan.  The Rudolf Seiler family was given special IDs and full Allied Forces privileges.  Per Werner Seiler, all other Germans, including Willy Seiler, were told that they would be deported back to Germany.  Rudolf Seiler, who had become close to General MacArthur, intervened on Willy's behalf.   Based on Rudolf's reputation, Willy was allegedly paroled and allowed to stay in Japan with certain restrictions.  Rudolf also allegedly ended up financially supporting his brother for a time.  Anita Lorenz, on the other hand, says she is not aware of any evidence to support such claims, and says that her father would never have been allowed social contact with General MacArthur if he had had Nazi sympathies.  The two brothers had a permanent falling out over another matter not long after, which resulted in decades of estrangement among the two branches of the Seiler family.

Below are examples of Willy and Rudolf Seiler's signatures on their respective etchings.  During the period in which Rudolf had a badly injured hand, his signature looks more like "A. Seiler" than "R. Seiler," causing many people, myself included, to erroneously attribute some of his etchings to either Willy or Anita.  Dealers and collectors should also note that the paper used for Rudolf's etchings is also different than that used for Willy's etchings.

 Willy Seiler's Signature

Rudolf Seiler's Signature

  Rudolf Seiler's Signature (injury period)

Listed below are all the Rudolf Seiler etchings known to me at this point in time, but it is not an exhaustive list.  Some of his black and white (or sepia) etchings were hand-colored by special request.  The more elaborately hand-colored ones were done by Rudolf's wife, Chièko.  A few of the etchings bear plate number and edition size on the back of the prints, though some do not and I lack information about what may or may not appear on the backs of most of these prints. 

 

Ainu Pounding Rice 

Edition of 30

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(etching)

 

Arranging Flowers
Edition of 25

(etching)

 
 Chinese Rickshaw Coolie Plate #2; edition of 30
(etching)

 Drying Sheaves of Rice

(colored etching)

Farmer Babies Await Their Mother Plate #6, edition of 25

(etching)

Farmers Feasting in Fields

(colored etching)

Festival of a Temple

Courtesy of Ronin Gallery

(etching)

 

Fisher Resting
Plate #11, edition of 25?

(colored etching)

Fresh Fish

(colored etching)

Geisha

Courtesy of the Koller Collection

(colored etching) 

    

Girls' Day (aka Girls' Festival) 

 Plate #18, edition of 30 (right)

(etching/colored etching)

Heavy Load

(colored etching)

    

Irrigating Rice Fields
L: Courtesy of Ronin Gallery

(etching/colored etching)

Japanese Rice Farmers At Work
(etching)

Katsura Riku, Kyoto

(colored etching) 

Kentai Bridge at Iwakuni
(colored etching)

    

Kinkakuji Temple, Kyoto
L: Courtesy of Gallery Hiroshima

(etching/colored etching)

Korean Youngsters

(colored etching)

Lake Hakone

(colored etching)

 

 

 "Maiko" Geisha Girls, Kyoto

Image courtesy of Andres Harnisch

(etching)

Mama-San Peddling Flowers
(colored etching)

 

Matsushima Island 

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(etching)

     
Miyajima

L: Edition of 25, Courtesy of Gallery Hiroshima 

R: Edition of ?, Courtesy of Artelino.com

(etching/colored etching)

Mother and Children
Plate #8, edition of 25

(etching)

Pearl Divers Carrying Their Catch

(colored etching)

Peasant Girl
Edition of 25

(colored etching)

    

Peddler Woman

Personal Collection (right)
(etching/colored etching)

    

Planting Rice

(etching/colored etching)

     

Priest With Flute

(etching/colored etching)

Public Bath
Courtesy of Artelino.com
(colored etching)

Rice Farmer

(etching)

Rice Harvest

(colored etching)

Short Rest
Courtesy of Artelino.com

(colored etching)

Silk Cocoons

 Edition of 30

Courtesy of Artelino.com

(etching)

 

    

Wood Carver
Personal Collection (right)

(etching/colored etching)

In 1968, Rudolf Seiler took his wife on a world tour to show her all the places he had been to and to visit their son Werner in Lausanne, Switzerland, and their daughter Gisela in Frankfurt, Germany.   While in Germany, Rudolf and Chièko decided they liked the Taunus area just outside Frankfurt and decided that they would like to move there.  They flew back to Japan and started to work towards closing shop.   Rudolf did his final tour of vernisages around Japan, including all U.S. military bases.   They sold their Tokyo house and moved to Frankfurt in 1971, where they built a house in Bad Soden.  Rudolf continued to paint a few watercolors and his wife continued her work with oils.  Rudolf Seiler died in 1982 and Chièko passed away in 1997.  They are both buried in Bad Soden.

 

Rudolf and Chieko Seiler in Nara (1957)

Copyright owned by Werner Seiler

My sincere thanks to Anita A. Lorenz and to Werner R. Seiler for providing me biographical details about Rudolf, Willy, and Anita Seiler.  Please contact me if you have additional information about the Seilers, especially if you have images of any missing print designs.

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