EUGENE VON BRUENCHENHEIN | Selected Portraits of Marie

a group of 36 photographs, each framed, circa 1945 (36)

Acquired from Marie Von Bruenchenhein, the photographer's widow, 1989

New York, Museum of Sex, Known/Unknown: Private Obsession and Hidden Desire in Outsider Art, January - September 2017

These gelatin silver prints, on light-weight paper with a matte, slightly textured surface, are in generally excellent condition. The photographs range in tonality from nearly neutral to sepia. Four photographs have been removed from their frames for inspection: there are occasional soft handling creases and faint stains, primarily in the margins and on the reverse; this does not detract from the overall fine appearance of the prints in any way. There are various numerical notations in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse of these prints.
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Self-taught, visionary artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein met Eveline Kalke in 1939 at a state fair in Wisconsin, and they were married in 1943.  Nicknamed 'Marie,' she became Von Bruenchenhein’s muse, modeling for hundreds of pin-up style photographs in their home in Milwaukee.  Although Von Bruenchenhein was also a prolific painter, ceramicist, and sculptor, the photographs he took during the 1940s reveal not only his obsession with photographing his young wife but also ingenious resourcefulness.  Marie wore homemade crowns, bikinis, and jewelry fashioned from scavenged Christmas ornaments to flowers to coffee cans.