Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937)

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Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).

• Profession: Portret painter, author, journalist and pianist.
• Residences: Berlin
• Relation to Mahler: Painted portraits of Gustav Mahler, Anton Bruckner (1824-1896), Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) and Cosima Wagner (1837-1930). According to old newspaper articles the Mahler portrait is in Russia.
• Correspondence with Mahler: Yes. Mahler sent her 8 letters, 7 are undated. Except 02-03-1896. Mahler had not yet met her in 1896. Mahler admirer.
  1. 02-03-1896 Year 1896 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).
  2. 00-04-1896 Year 1896 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937). Answering a letter from Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937) after the concert 1896 Concert Berlin 16-03-1896 – Symphony No. 1, Todtenfeier, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Premiere).
  3. 00-05-1896 Year 1896 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937). See photo below.
  4. 00-05-1896 Year 1896 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).
  5. 00-11-1896 Year 1896 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).
  6. 00-12-1896 Year 1896 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).
  7. 00-12-1897 Year 1897 Hamburg: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).
  8. 00-01-1899 Year 1899 Vienna: Letter to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937).
• Born: 00-00-1857 Berlin, Germany. Born as Anna Kuczynski. Also: Annie Sommerfeld, Annie Mincieux, Anita Mincieux.
• Married: Late 00-00-1904 she married C.A. (Charles) Mincieux, art dealer, Grand Rue 11 in Geneva.
• Address: 
  • 0000 Berne (near Bremen)
  • 1893-1897 Baslei, Berlin, Ostendorf, Lugano
  • 1897-1902 Locarno, Berlin, Cologne, Murren
  • 1902-1929 Berlin, Munich, Lausanne, Paris
  • 1903-1910 Munich, Paris
  • 1910 Switserland
  • 1904-1921 Paris, Lausanne
  • 1929 Munich, Bern
  • 1932 Bern
• Died: 00-00-1937. Aged 80.
• Buried: 

She came from a family of Berlin bankers (Polish emigrants). Father Louis Kuczynski. Her older brother was the once famous composer Paul (Pavel, Pawel) Kuczynski (born 10-11-1846, died 21-10-1897): pupil of Hans von Bulow (1830-1894), composer, friend and supporter of Richard Wagner (1813-1883).

Studied with Gussow in Berlin and Carriere and Leandre in Paris. First public performance as a pianist at the age of 14.

In the 1890s she changed her name Anna Kuczynski to Annie Sommerfeld, but inventually insisted on being known as Annie (also Anita) Mincieux, to such an extent that she erased the name Sommerfield from Mahler’s handwritten dedication to her. See photo.

Spent twelve years as a journalist in Paris. Since 1910 she lived and worked in Switzerland.

Annie Mincieux published the letters from Mahler in her own lifetime (Basler Nachrichten 13-07-1923). These letters are incomplete.

Year 1896, 00-05-1896 Postcard by Gustav Mahler to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937). Gustav Mahler. Photo by E. Bieber, Hamburg 1892, with dedication to Annie Sommerfeld-Mincieux (1857-1937):

“Den Unmundigen / zu verkunstigen / ist, wie bestellt, / frau Sommerfeld! / In Worten, bundigen, / in Thaten, grundigen / wie ein Held! / Nun merk dir’s Welt / und hore auf, zu sundigen! / Meiner Evangelistin Frau Annie Sommerfeld in aufrichtiger Freundschaft / Gustav Mahler / Hamburg, Mai 1896.”

“The underpowered / to articulate / is as ordered, / Ms. Sommerfeld! / In words, concise, / in deeds, ground / like a hero! / Now remember the world / and stop sinning! / My evangelist Ms. Annie Sommerfeld in sincere friendship / Gustav Mahler / Hamburg, May 1896. “

Annie Mincieux later crossed out the name Sommerfeld.