Dandelions that have bloomed are arranged in a vase for this study by German amateur photographer Alex Grahl.

This is the seventh photogravure of seven included within Art historian Richard Stettiner’s text essay printed for the portfolio, which can be found under the group heading for this work. Pagination on index page indicates ALEXE GRAHL, Loschwitz bei Dresden.

Alexe Grahl: 1844-1903

Alexandrine Rosa Elisabeth Grahl was a German amateur photographer . (Life) She was born Alexandrine Grahl, the second child of the painter August Grahl and Elisabeth Grahl née Oppenheim (1813–1905), in Dresden. She came from a wealthy, middle-class family like many artistic photographers at the turn of the century. Growing up in her grandfather’s houses, the Palais Oppenheim and the Villa Rosa, Alexe and her younger sister Käthe (1847–1933) received private lessons from the governess Emmy Roquette, drawing and painting lessons, music lessons from a Mr Pfretzschner, and dance lessons from a dancer from the Dresden Court Theater . Her brothers Hugo and Otto , on the other hand, attended grammar school.

Drawing lessons were a matter of course for the Grahl children, including Alexe: “Grandpa (August Grahl) had also found it necessary to get us a drawing teacher… Gille… he came to Loschwitz twice a week and then we all went up to the garden, equipped with drawing boards and lots of charcoal, where we had to sketch the beautiful old tree sections… Aunt Alexe was the most talented and she really got to work.” So she and her sister Rose Grahl painted ornaments in a men’s monastery in Salzburg as a template for handicrafts.  Alexe Grahl came from a family close to nature. Her grandfather Martin Wilhelm Oppenheim made his own homeopathic medicine, and the family collected herbs and medicinal plants for their own use. Her mother and sisters drew flowers and blossoms from nature. Alexe, on the other hand, captured them on film . She became a photographer out of hobby and passion, like her uncle Alexander Oppenheim (1819–1898), who had trained as a photographer under Gustave Le Gray in Paris around 1851. Alexe Grahl is one of the few ambitious amateur photographers of the time. – Wikipedia (2024)