Snapshots by Kodaksefke

The artistic Lasinsky family

Back in the 1980’s I researched the 19th century photographers in the town of Roermond in the south of the Netherlands. The results were published in the Dutch photo-historical journal and used by the RKD, the Dutch institute of art history, in their online database of artists.

CdV by Adolf Lasinsky in Venlo 
(source: Archive Venlo)

Some time ago I decided to update my research. My goal is not only to find facts that I missed in the 80’s, but to dig deeper into the matter. What was the career of the photographers before and after they were in Roermond? What did their studios look like, what kind of photos did they take, what was the financial position? How does the history of photography of Roermond compare with other cities? Also I want to add biographic data to the names of the photographers. Date and location of birth and death, names of parents and children. This will help future researchers to identify them and also to link them to relatives. The importance of this is illustrated in the case of Wilhelm Adolf Lasinsky.

One of the most interesting studios in Roermond is the one that started in 1867 when Theodor Diepenbach (Dec. 12, 1829 - ?) from the German town of Cleve, came to Roermond as an itinerant photographer. In October 1869 he opened his permanent studio, but had to close it one year later because a new building had taken away the light from his studio. 
In 1870 his brother August Diepenbach (April 9, 1837 – January 26, 1876) was back in town with his own studio. One of his ads mentions that he had worked before in the city, probably with Theodor. In November 1871 he married Elise Mischke (born January 5, 1842 in Hüth – died April 11, 1895 in Krefeld). Unfortunately her husband died in January 1876 at the age of 38 years. As far as I know Elise was not a photographer at that time. For a short period her brother in law Theodor helped her. Also photographer Wilhelm Penning (May 14, 1848 – March 24, 1883) worked in her studio, but in October 1876 Elise made known that he was not working for her anymore. It sound like there had been some trouble. Then new help came in the person of photographer Wilhelm Adolf Lasinsky (born February 6, 1849 in Cologne – died February 28, 1891 in Roermond), who had a studio in the city of Venlo, not far from Roermond. Elise and Adolf married on February 8, 1877 and until his death forteen years later he was the photographer of her studio.

Source eBay

Wilhelm Adolf Lasinsky

Adolf came from a very artistic family. His father Johann Adolf Lasinsky (born October 16, 1808 in Simmern – died September 6, 1871 in Düsseldorf) was a famous German painter of the so called Düsseldorf school. He is best known for his romantic landscapes of the Rhine and received orders from the rich and famous, like the later tsar of Russia, Alexander II.

Painting by Johann Adolf Lasinsky,
Ehrenbreitstein, 1828

His grandmother Anna-Maria Lasinsky (born as Von Knapp, March 8, 1782 in Heidelberg – died June 19, 1839 in Koblenz) was a poet, whose poems were published in 1827.

That is not all. Wilhelm Adolf had an uncle August Gustav Lasinsky (born October 27, 1811 in Koblenz – died July 24, 1870 in Mainz), who was also a famous painter of the Düsseldorf school and was best known for his religious paintings.
As far as I know Wilhelm Adolf’s mother Antoinette Margaretha T. Sauset (dates unknown) was not an artist, but his sister Laura (Born January 20, 1844 in Cologne – died November 27, 1919 in Düsseldorf) had many artistic talents.

Laura Lasinsky

In 1870 Laura started her photographic studio in Düsseldorf, probably at the Hohestrasse 6 (here she is located according to a May 1873 ad). She must have been very successful because there are still many Carte de Visite portraits of her studio around. On October 30, 1880 she married painter and photographer Wilhelm Lüdcke (dates unknown), but for many years the name of her studio remains “Photographische Anstalt der Firma Laura Lasinsky”. Later it is called “Photographische Anstalt Lüdcke-Lasinsky” but with the remark that it was formerly called “Laura Lasinsky”.

Source eBay

In the 1888 address directory of the city, the studio was still located at Hohestrasse 6, but in the 1889 book it is at the Oststrasse 75. There Laura remains until her death on November 27, 1919. In the 1920 address directory she and her photo company are still mentioned. In 1922 the studio is not mentioned anymore but Laura is. I guess everyone simply forgot to get her out of the directory, because she is still in it in 1939.

That’s not all about Laura. She also was a concert singer and music teacher. This is even mentioned on her death certificate.

Adolf Lasinsky for some
time used the same CdV
design as his sister Laura

So this is the story of the Lasinsky family, but what happened to Elise Mischke and her studio in Roermond? After the death of Adolf in 1891 she continued her studio for a couple of years. In March 1894 her last ad appeared in a newspaper and in July all her possessions were sold. At that time she already was married to merchant Franz Simon (dates unknown). They moved to the German city of Krefeld, were Elise died on April 11, 1895, just 52 years old.

Her Roermond studio was bought by O. Hegemann and E. Bingen (dates unknown), who continued it into the 20th century.

Düsseldorf photographer Beate Knappe has written the book “Die Atelier-Fotografin : Ein Frauenberuf im 19. Jahrhundert zwischen Modeerscheinung und Profession”, which was published in 1995 by the university in Essen. Part of it deals with Laura Lasinsky. The book is hard to find, but I’m still trying to get hold of it. Beate Knappe was so kind to send me the date and place of birth of Laura and to confirm that she had died in 1919. I had to leaf through 2700 death certificates before I found the exact day. But now it’s official: Laura Lasinsky is dead.

Detail of death certificate of Laura Lasinsky. She died the day before.
It takes a bit of practice to read it.

This is a PDF of the Dutch text of my article: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B_RLGmLfS_2iZ1V1OTN4WVVoalE/view?usp=sharing

And here you can read the poems of Anna-Maria von Knapp: http://www.deutsche-liebeslyrik.de/lasinsky.htm