Rabbit Dreams And Other Apocalyptic Nightmares Illustrated Tom Seidmann-Freud – 1924

Tom Seidmann-Freud's surreal art captures the terrors and pleasures of childhood

“[Tom Seidmann-Freud] lived on cigarettes and her room was always full of smoke – a real bohemian woman.”
Gershom Scholem

 

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits Martha Freud

 

Tom Seidmann-Freud was born Martha Freud in 1892 Austria, the niece of psychoanalyst Dr Sigmund Freud by way of the doctor’s sister Maria ‘Mitzi’ Freud and Moritz Freud. Martha adopted the name ‘Tom’ at around 15, occasionally dressing in men’s clothes.

As Tom Seidmann-Freud, she moved to Germany and illustrated children’s books, not least of all Buch Der Hasengeschichten (The Book of Rabbit Stories, 1924), published through the Peregrin Verlag (Peregrin Publishing Company) she created with her husband, the journalist and writer Jakob Seidmann. The work takes in twelve surreal and captivating fairy tales and fables from round the worlds as told by ‘Meister Lampe’.

Writing in Tablet, Marjorie Ingall tells us Martha “hung out with Berlin’s avant-garde crowd, as well as with her family’s academic and Zionist friends… Her style involved outlining folk-art-y, simple illustrations precisely in ink, then filling them in with watercolors. She frequently used stencils and paint together in a bright, lively technique called pochoir.”

Martha took her own life in 1930, four months after Jakob had killed himself. Her books were banned and destroyed under the Nazi regime as part of the purge of Jewish authors.

Martha’s family saved some of her work. Safe-guarded by sister Lilly Marlé after Tom’s death, a number of items were passed to Tom and Jakob’s daughter. Angela.

 

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits Martha Freud

How the mind was distributed among the animals – a tale from Sudan

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

A fairy tale from the Hudson Bay

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

About the hare who was married A Norwegian fairy tale.

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits-

The hare and the fountain A Creole fairy tale from Louisiana.

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

The fear maker A fairy tale of the Hamitic Bogos.

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

Häsichenbraut A fairy tale from Buckow in Mecklenburg.

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

The feint with the moon A fable from Hitopadescha.

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

The rabbit laughs until his lip bursts A fairy tale from the parish of Waiwara.

Tom Seidmann-Freud Rabbits

The hare and the weasel A Swahili fairy tale.

Fable of the hares and the frogs A fable from Aesop.

Fable of the hares and the frogs A fable from Aesop.

Why the rabbit doesn't have a tail A Zulu fairy tale.

Why the rabbit doesn’t have a tail A Zulu fairy tale.

The calabash A Woloff fairy tale.

The calabash A Woloff fairy tale.

Via: University of Applied Sciences Augsburg, Tom Seidmann Freud

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