ADOLPH FRIEDRICH ERDMANN VON MENZEL (WROCLAW 1815-1905 BERLIN)

1 More

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK … Read more

Restituted to the Heirs of Max and Martha LiebermannThe celebrated pioneer of German Impressionism, Max Liebermann (1847-1935) was a central figure in the cultural life of Imperial-era and Weimar Republic Germany. In 1898, he was one of the co-founders of the Berlin Secession and from 1920 to 1932 he was president of the Prussian Academy of Arts. He embodied the artistic and intellectual establishment of those years and was, additionally, one of the most important art collectors of his time. The many walls of his house at the Brandenburg Gate and of his villa on the Wannsee offered space for numerous paintings and pastels by French Impressionists such as Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Claude Monet, to name a few. When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Liebermann resigned as honorary president of the Academy. Liebermann died in 1935, survived by his wife Martha, who committed suicide shortly before her deportation to the Theresienstadt camp. Their only child, Käthe Riezler, and her family escaped Germany and emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1938. For a drawing attributed to Rembrandt from Liebermann’s collection, see lot 53.

ADOLPH FRIEDRICH ERDMANN VON MENZEL (WROCLAW 1815-1905 BERLIN)

Studies of two heads of women seen from behind

Details

ADOLPH FRIEDRICH ERDMANN VON MENZEL (WROCLAW 1815-1905 BERLIN)
Studies of two heads of women seen from behind
pastel, on brown paper
15.4 x 7.6 cm (6 x 3 1/8 in.)

Provenance

The artist's estate; thence by descent to Emilie von Krigar-Menzel (sister of the artist).
Max Liebermann (1847-1935), Berlin, by 1929; by descent to his wife,
Martha Liebermann (1857-1943), Berlin; from whom acquired by
Fritz Nathan, Switzerland, in 1936; Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 20-24 May 1941, lot 961 (600 Swiss francs); where acquired by
Private collection, Switzerland; Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, 25 May 1944, lot 657; where acquired by
Private collection, Lucerne.
The Krupp family; thence by descent to Harald Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach; Christie’s, London, 9 October 1997, lot 49; where acquired by
Jan Krugier (1928-2008), Geneva; thence by descent.
Restituted to the heirs of Max and Martha Liebermann, 2023.

Literature

P. Rylands, The Timeless Eye. Master Drawings from the Jan and Marie Anne Krugier-Poniatowski Collection, exhib. cat., Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Madrid, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, and Geneva, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, 1999-2000, p. 410, ill. [German edition: Linie, Licht und Schatten. Meisterzeichnungen und Skulpturen der Sammlung Jan und Marie Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, Berlin, 1999, p. 411, ill.].

Exhibited

Paris, Musée Jacquemart-André, La Passion du dessin. Collection Jan et Marie Anne Krugier-Poniatowski, 2002 (not in catalogue).

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Annabel Kishor Specialist

akishor@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2709

Lot Essay

Not surprisingly, the German Impressionist Liebermann had a special fondness for Adolph Menzel, owning over fifty works by him, mainly drawings (H. Köhle, ‘Liebermann und Menzel’ in Hedinger et al., op. cit., pp. 73-76, and S. Haug and B. Hedinger ibid., nos. SL 119-SL174, ill.). The technique – pastel on dark brown paper – is one often used by the artist (for examples by Menzel, see Claude Keisch and Marie Ursula Riemann-Reyher, eds., Adolph Menzel, 1815-1905. Between Romanticism and Impressionism, cat. exh. Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, and Berlin, Nationalgalerie im Alten Museum, 1996-1997, nos. 50, 51, ill.).

More from Old Master and British Drawings and Watercolours

View All