Marg Moll

Marg Moll (Born Margarethe Haeffner, 2 August 1884, Mühlhausen – 15 March 1977, Munich) was a German sculptor, painter, and author. Moll worked with many German artists throughout her life and was a sculptor. She stated once that she would rather do sculptures because she tried to avoid competition between her and her husband, a painter.

Moll was highly inspired by Henri Matisse as a young artist and spent her life contributing to his form of art, although at times her art was destroyed and criticized by Nazis because it was modern art. Moll was known for being very high spirited when it came to Matisse, was known as the “Director’s Wife” during some time of her later life and known for making an “ultra-modern house” in Berlin designed by Hans Scharoun, German architect best known for his design on the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall in Berlin, Germany.

Young Marg was highly influenced by Henri Matisse’s modern art, which included bright pieces that captured her attention. From 1907 to 1908 Marg studied at Académie Matisse, Paris and founded the Matisse School in Paris with her husband, Oskar Moll, in 1908 to educate and promote the modernist aesthetics in arts including Matisse’s form of art. In 1908, Marg and her husband met Henri Matisse. In the same year, Matisse painted his famous portrait of Greta Moll, now located in the National Gallery in London. When Marg began to work with Matisse, she concentrated more heavily on sculpture, perfecting her technique and using all sorts of sculpting materials.

Marg attended the Stadelsches Institut in Frankfurt am Main from 1903 to 1905 and studied under painter Hans Volker in Wiesbaden. She also studied painting in Bavaria under Oskar Moll, whom she later married. Additionally, Marg studied sculpture under Louise Schmidt in Frankfurt am Main. In 1905, Marg traveled to Rome and later studied at Lovis Corinth's famous school for women in Berlin from 1906 to 1907.

Margarethe married Oskar Moll, a professor and director at the Breslau Academy, and became known as the Director’s Wife due to her husband's position. Margarethe and Oskar had two daughters: Melita, born in 1908, and Brigitte, born in 1918. Marg lived in several cities throughout her life, including Berlin, where she lived from 1908 to 1919, and Breslau, where she moved in 1919 and remained until 1932. In 1934 she returned to Berlin and lived there throughout World War II. Though her family hid from the Nazis during the war, the Molls built a house in Berlin in 1943 designed by the German architect Hans Scharoun. The Molls filled their home with paintings by Matisse, Fernand Léger, Georges Braque, and Picasso. Their home, along with many of Marg's works, was destroyed by the bombing of Berlin in 1943. Marg traveled to Europe and the United States after Oskar died in 1947. She lived in both Düsseldorf and Munich after 1952.

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