PROFILE
EARLY YEARS
Born in 1918 Germany as World War I was coming to an end, Christa was raised in the well-off household of her maternal grandfather in Schweidnitz, Silesia where her grandfather had numerous properties and was involved in town business. Though Schweidnitz, now known as Swidnica, has been part of Poland since World War II, Christa always considered herself to be German.
Proud of her German roots, Christa enjoyed pointing out that the family of Baron Manfred von Richtofen, the Red Baron, had lived just down the street from her grandparents' house (his sister went to school with Christa’s mother), where she grew up, in Schweidnitz. Christa would also point to the fearlessness of her maternal grandmother as she prepared to be the first woman in Schweidnitz to fly in an airplane in the early days of flying.
Spiritual, though not religious, Christa often proudly declared that she was related to Martin Luther. Recent ancestry research has confirmed that Martin Luther was indeed a 14th great uncle on her mother’s side.
With a healthy appreciation for history and a good story, Christa was fond of saying that she was descended from Mongols from the time that Genghis Khan’s troops invaded the eastern regions of Europe. A recent DNA test by her daughter has disproven that story.
In her late teens, as Christa was walking down a street with her mother, she was spotted by a dashing young German man, Hans Eichler, who declared to her mother his intent to marry Christa. Trained as an art historian, he would become her first husband when they married in Trier.
Christa's Grandmother, Ida Voigt Kabitz in 1910-11 was the first woman in Schweidnitz to fly in an airplane
Front of Christa's childhood home in Schweidnitz
Side view of Christa's childhood home in Schweidnitz. Her family lived in the second floor apartment visible on this side.
ca 1930, when she was a young girl, Christa tamed a red squirrel to be her pet.
Christa Kabitz (center) with her sisters Traude and Ruth.
Christa with her painting "Gathering Grapes"
ART SCHOOL
Combining an interest in people with a talent for art, Christa enrolled at the acclaimed Breslau Academy of Art in 1940 as her husband was drafted. Frustrated with the school’s requirements allowing only the human figure to be sketched for the first two years, Christa reached out to work with a well-known painter in Breslau, Max Friese, whom she credits with teaching her to paint.
1942 Rear of Breslau cathedral by Christa Kabitz Eichler. May be initialed at lower right.
1942 GEORG KANDIS, Unfinished, by Christa Kabitz Eichler
1940 Girl Playing Violin. Oil by Christa Kabitz Eichler. 24 x 32 (60 x 80 cm)
1941 FRAU WEDEL portrait by Christa Kabitz Eichler. Signed: C.E.-K. Appears to be paint on canvas board
1942 portrait of Nelly Sleinmann by Christa Kabitz Eichler
1942 portrait of Dr. Sleinmann. Signed: Christa Eichler-Kabitz
WAR YEARS
By 1944, Christa began to create a name for herself. She’d exhibited in Breslau, Berlin and Prague and had commissions to paint Prince Alexander of Prussia, Baroness Wedell, Judge Wawersig, Professor Kruger and others and felt she needed to move on and establish herself with a studio. She had heard there were great studios in a famous painter’s colony around Kronberg and so took the train to Frankfurt. Leasing the former Norbert Schrödl studio on HainStrasse in Kronberg, Christa quickly connected with the arts community, hosting artists from the area. She continued painting portraits and commissions as the war consumed the country.
At that time Allied air raids on Frankfurt were such a regular occurrence that Christa made a standing offer for friends to come and stay in her studio to escape. Among those taking her up on the offer were the photographer Erich Fornuff and the actor Richard Munch and his wife.
“…I remember the night when Frankfurt had [a] heavy air raid and I watched the whole thing from my upstairs… And I was standing out on my [Kronberg studio] terrace… and I watched the air raid develop over Frankfurt. How at first the airplanes there came one wave and they throw what I would call glitter. It was something to deflect the radar and then they came in different waves. And I also saw the parachutes of the pilots who bailed out of their hit airplanes and how they were sinking down. It was amazing. I was fascinated. I was not worried, I was curious.”
Christa on her Kronberg studio terrace
Christa (on sofa) entertaining in her Kronberg studio, 1944. Photo by Erich Fornoff
Christa with landscape
1945 Portrait of the German actor Richard Munch (alt. spelling Meunch), Signed: Christa K.E. Oil on canvas probably.
1940 GERMAN GENERAL portrait 24 x 34 (60 x 86 cm) Signed Eichler-Kabitz. Oil on canvas
1943 Rupert and Rainer Lemcke commissioned portrait. Signed: Christa Eichler-Kabitz. Oil on canvas
1944 Commission: portrait of PROFESSOR EMIL KRÜGER, Director of Museum in Trier 22 x 28 (56 x 72 cm) Signed: Eichler Kabitz. Oil
Oil painting by Christa Kabitz Eichler of her studio in Kronberg
Christa painting outdoors. She wears the same jacket in her 1941 self-portrait.
GERMANY, POST WAR
As Germany struggled to rebuild after the war, Christa took a teaching position in 1945 at the Master School in Offenbach, the forerunner of the Hessen State University of Art and Design. She exhibited in Frankfurt and Heidelberg and continued commissions and portraits including Freiherr von Berlichingen and family, Prince Hohenlohe, Professor Giese, the actor Hermann Schomberg (as Goetz von Berlichingen), and others.
1945-50 Baltic Boy and Horse by Christa Kabitz Eichler. 15.5 x 19.5. Watercolor on paper .
1949 Girl and Dog Signed: Ch Kabitz Oil on canvas
1949 Architect Signed: Christa K.E. Appears to be oil on canvas
1946 Reading Woman. Signed Ch. Kabitz. Appears to be oil painting
1947 SEWING tempera watercolor by Christa Kabitz Eichler. Unsigned. 12.5x15.5
1945 -50 Woman in Pearls painting by Christa Kabitz Eichler
WASHINGTON, DC
By 1950, Germany was still struggling and commissions for portraits were dwindling. Christa, with no children and her marriage dissolved at that time, was presented with an opportunity to move to the United States. Sponsored by Lieutenant General Withers Alexander Burress and his wife, Christa arrived in Baltimore, MD in 1951. Given the choice of going north to New York City or south to Washington, DC, she chose Washington based on her admiration of Thomas Jefferson.
Christa immediately made connections in Washington’s art scene. She exhibited in the Corcoran’s select 6th Annual Area Exhibition and painted murals for the exclusive Black Tie Society charity ball that year where she met Edmund Totten Sommer II who would become her second husband.
Through the 1950’s and early 1960’s Christa continued portraits and commissions including Madame Nicole Alphand, wife of the French Ambassador, Pierre Landy, Counselor of the French Embassy, Madame Oreamuno, Mrs. Kvarness and sons, Eric and Jensen, the Audley children, Mrs. Olga Foley, Tiger Reviere, Trudy Davis and son, Geoffrey, and many others.
Christa’s pieces were included in exhibitions in New York, Chicago and Washington, DC during this period.
In 1966, Christa made news when she was commissioned to paint the portraits of 22 Georgetown Law School Professors for display in a new Law School building in the city. For the large, contemporary building which was under construction, Christa broke with tradition by creating oversized “headshot” portraits of the professors using a palette knife and four foot tall Masonite board rather than traditional smaller painted canvas portraits.
The 1960's, a turning point in many ways, also saw changes in Christa’s work as she experimented with mediums, subjects and styles. Adding to the mix were changes in her life, first moving from downtown Washington DC to the suburbs and later the dissolution of her second marriage.
By the late sixties, with her husband estranged, and daughters nearly grown, Christa began teaching and studying at Catholic University, the Corcoran School of Art, and American University.
The 1970's were a period of exploration for Christa as she was newly single and on her own with daughters off to college. She moved back to the city, within walking distance of the National Gallery of Art and the Smithsonian Museum collections, and continued painting while she also began a modestly successful career in Real Estate. A friendship with a minor airline executive sparked into an affair which fed her desire for travel.
In the 1980's, Christa discovered the town of San Miguel de Allende and the financial benefit of renting out her house in DC while living in Mexico part-time. The years in Mexico are reflected in the re-entry of bright colors in her work after a decade of dark tones. When in Washington, she also continued to do some painting including portraits of Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Johnny Carson, Celebrity Lawyer Marvin Mitchelson, Harvard Professor Arthur Miller, Clara Mortensen Beyer, and others.
In 1992, with the anticipated birth of her first grandchild and fading health including macular degeneration and osteoporosis, Christa returned to Washington DC where she remained until a stroke in 2001 forced her to downsize and move to be close to her younger daughter in Atlanta, GA. In 2008 she moved with her younger daughter to Jacksonville, FL and passed away in 2011.
1952 MADAME OREAMUNO, wife of Costa Rican Ambassador to USA. 29 x 36. Signed: Christa. Oil on canvas.
1965 Georgetown University LAW PROF PHILIP ALOYSUIS RYAN. 32 x 48. Signed: Christa. Oil on masonite
1971 ROBERTO POLO 19 x 23.5 Signed: Christa. Paint on paper
1970-76 PIERRE LANDY in Berlin by Christa K. Sommer
1981 Window Rock AZ Signed: Christa. Acrylic probably
1982-83 MARVIN MITCHELSON Signed: Christa. Acrylic on canvas