You are bidding on one handwritten, signed letter theRussian-German stage designer, costume designer and illustrator Ita Maximovna (1901-1988).

From the estate of a Berlin autograph collector who personally received autographs from singers and actors from the 1930s to the 1970s or had them mailed to him by the artists (some of the envelopes are still there). -- Addressed to this collector.

On fine, thin A4 writing paper; with printed Berlin address.

17-XI-54

Dear Mr. Ludwig, thank you very much for your lines and I hasten to fulfill your request.

With best wishes, yours

Ita Maximovna.

Without envelope.

Enclosed in a protective sheet; with handwritten attribution "Ita Maximovna stage designer."

Condition: letter folded lengthwise and crosswise; in excellent condition. Protective sheet with an unsightly stain on the back. BPlease note also the pictures!

Internal note: Opera 2104-2

ÜcalculatedIta Maximovna (Source: wikipedia):

Ita Maximowna (actually Margarita Maximowna Schnakenburg, married name: Ita Baumann; * 18. October July/ 31. October 1901 greg. in Pskov; † 8th. April 1988 in West Berlin) was a Russian-German set designer, costume designer and illustrator. It is the stage name of one of the first and most important stage designers, costume designers and graphic designers in Germany. Her creative period covers the period from the 1940s to the 1970s. century.

Life: Margarita Maximowna Schnakenburg was born as the daughter of the dentist Elisabeth Natalie Ernestine Schnakenburg, nee. von Roth (1878-1966), and the dentist Max Karl Heinrich Scborn hnakenburg (1875–1919). The first child of the family and older brother was Heinrich Ludwig Nicolai Schnakenburg. Margarita Maximovna spent a fulfilling and happy childhood and youth in Pskov. After the premature death of the father in 1919 from tuberculosis and driven by the turmoil of the Russian October Revolution, the mother fled with her two children first to relatives in Davos, Switzerland. In 1920 the family emigrated to Germany, with Margarita's brother Heinrich doing an apprenticeship in Leipzig at the "Technical School for Book Printers" founded by Heinrich Julius Mäser, while Margarita moved to Berlin with her mother.

Margarita Maximovna Schnakenburg went to Paris in 1920 to teach Russian and met the graphic artist and stage designer Marie Laurencin there. There she studied graphics and painting with her until the mid-twenties. Ita then deepened her education with the Berlin painter Erwin Freytag (1901-1940) and the painter, graphic artist and typeface designer Johannes Boehland (1903-1964) at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In the early 1930s, Ita Maximowna married Carl Fredrik Baumann, former director and syndic of the Maizena works in Hamburg, in Berlin. In the 1930s and 1940s she created packaging designs and advertising graphics for Maizena products and also illustrated numerous books, including a quite successful book about stylish women's clothing that was published several times (see works). The marriage was annulled at the end of World War II.

In the mid-1940s, Ita Maximovna met her future partner Karlheinz Martin, who made a great contribution to the reconstruction of Berlin theater life after 1945. Karlheinz Martin introduced Ita Maximovna to the fantastic world of stage design as the then director of the Hebbel Theater in Berlin. From now on she began to use her stage name "Ita Maximovna" as a shortening of her first name and her patronymic. For many years she worked for the Hebbel Theater, Renaissance Theater, Schiller Theater and Schlosspark Theater in Berlin, as well as internationally for opera houses in London, Paris, Milan, Vancouver, Buenos Aires and New York City. She worked with well-known directors and conductors such as Karlheinz Martin mentioned above, but also with OE Hasse, Karl-Heinz Stroux, Leo Blech and Herbert von Karajan. In particular with Günther Rennert, she has staged countless productions around the world. In the years that followed, Ita Maximovna worked intensively with her good friend and assistant Martin Rupprecht, who later became a professor for stage design and stage costumes at the Berlin University of the Arts.

After an intensive creative phase as a set and costume designer for theaters and opera houses, Ita Maximovna also designed buildings and costumes for film projects in the 1960s and 1970s. At the end of her career she devoted herself more and more to painting and left a large number of graphics and paintings.

During her lifetime as an artist, she did not give any specific figures at the time of her birth, which is why a large number of different statements appear in various sources. the 31st October 1901 as her exact date of birth is based on probate documents.

Ita Maximovna died of heart failure in Berlin in April 1988.[7] She rests in the honorary grave of her partner, the artistic director and director Karlheinz Martin (1886–1948), in the state-owned Heerstraße cemetery in Berlin-Westend (grave location: II-Erb.-31).

The largest part of her artistic estate is now in the "Ita Maximovna Archive" of the "Archive for Performing Arts" of the Berlin Academy of Arts and can be viewed there.

awards

Berlin Art Prize 1953 (for the stage design for The Magic Flute, Municipal Opera Berlin)

Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class 5. March 1987 presented by Richard von Weizsäcker[

Stage sets and costume designs

Ita Maximovna has a total of approx. 400 productions for opera or theater with stage and costume designs. A small selection of important national and international performances is listed here:

1945 – Macbeth (Shakespeare), Hebbel-Theater Berlin, director: Karlheinz Martin.

1949 - Dirty Hands (JP Sartre), Renaissance Theater Berlin, director: OE Hasse.

1950 - Don Carlos (F. v. Schiller), opening of the Theater der Stadt Bonn, director: F. Reichert.

1952 – Peer Gynt (H. Ibsen), Schauspielhaus Hamburg, director: H. Koch.

1953 - The Magic Flute (WA Mozart), Municipal Opera Berlin, production: G. Rennert.

1955 – Carmen (G. Bizet), Milano Teatro alla Scala, conductor and director: H. von Karajan.

1956 – Salome (R Strauss), Milano Teatro alla Scala, conductor and director: H. von Karajan.

1957 - A long day's journey into the night (E. O'Neill), guest performance by the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus in the Stadttheater Bad Godesberg, directed by KH Stroux[11]

1959 – Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss), Théâtre Sarah Bernhardt Paris, Director: G. Rennert.

1961 – An Ideal Husband (O. Wilde), Burgtheater Vienna, director: J. Gielen.

1963 - Un ballo in maschera, a masked ball (G. Verdi), Metropolitan Opera New York, director: G. Rennert.

1963 – Don Giovanni (WA Mozart), Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, directed by H. Hartleb.

1965 – La Cenerentola (G. Rossini), Cologne Opera House, director: G. Rennert.

1967 – Così fan tutte (WA Mozart), Zurich Opera House, director: L. Lindtberg.

1968 – The Turk in Italy (G. Rossini), Munich State Opera, director: G. Rennert.

1970 – Viva la Mamma (G. Donizetti), Teatro La Fenice Venice, director: H. Käutner.

1973 - Il tabarro, The Coat and Gianni Schicchi (G. Puccini), Munich State Opera, director: G. Rennert.

1975 - The Coronation of Poppea (C. Monteverdi), San Francisco Opera, directed by G. Rennert.

1975 – Death in Venice (B. Britten), Munich State Opera, director: H. Hartleb.

1978 - The Coronation of Poppea (C. Monteverdi), Théâtre des Nations de Paris, directed by G. Rennert.

Works: Ita Maximovna has provided books by numerous authors with graphics and illustrations. Finally, in 1982 she published her own book about her many years of work as a stage and costume designer at Ernst Wasmuth Verlag in Tübingen.

Anton Krapf: "Well thought-out women's clothing - a beauty guide" with 110 drawings by Ita Baumann, Heinz Schnakenburg Verlag, Berlin 1934 (1. edition).

Samuil Marschak: The Twelve Months. A fairytale game. Illustrated by Ita Maximovna, Verlag Bruno Henschel und Sohn, Berlin 1947.

Ewan MacColl: Operation Olive Branch. Comedy, figurines by Ita Maximovna, published by Bruno Henschel and Son, Berlin 1948.

Nikolai Lesskow: The left-hander. Illustrated by Ita Maximovna, Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1949.

Annedore Leber: Who is traveling with you? Drawings by Ita Maximovna, Mosaik-Verlag GmbH, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main 1952.

Annedore Leber: We play: small people - small citizens. Card game, illustrations by Ita Maximovna, Mosaik-Verlag GmbH, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main 1953.

Ita Maximovna: Stage picture book - drafts, scene photos and figurines. Ernst Wasmuth Verlag Tübingen 1982, ISBN 3-8030-3027-7.