Sale: 563 / Modern Art Day Sale, Dec. 07. 2024 in Munich Lot 123001738


123001738
Max Liebermann
Bildnis des Textilfabrikanten Carl Lewin, 1922.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 20,000 - 30,000

 
$ 22,000 - 33,000

Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Bildnis des Textilfabrikanten Carl Lewin. 1922.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated in upper right. 90 x 72.5 cm (35.4 x 28.5 in).
[AR].

• Striking portrait of the textile manufacturer Carl Lewin.
• Made for one of the six children of the art-loving industrialist from Wroclaw, who was also portrayed by Georg Kolbe.
• Initially criticized for a lack of idealization in his earlier portraits, Liebermann eventually became one of the most sought-after portraitists of his time.
• In 1927, he received a commission to paint the Reich President Paul von Hindenburg.
• Similar works can be found in numerous museum collections, including the Kunsthalle Hamburg, the Staatliche Museen Schwerin and the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin
.

PROVENANCE: The work is free from restitution claims. The offer is made subject to an amicable agreement with the heirs of Cäcilie Beermann on the basis of a fair and just solution.

LITERATURE: Matthias Eberle, Max Liebermann. Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde und Ölstudien, vol. II: 1900-1935, Munich 1996, no. 1922/15 (illu. in black and white on p. 1058).
--
Galerie Rosen, auction 24, Berlin May 16 - 18, 1955, no. 1876.
Peter Günnemann, Hamburg, 18th auction, April 4, 1992, lot 15 (illu. in color).

This portrait is one of four paintings that the textile manufacturer Carl Lewin commissioned his friend Max Liebermann with: a portrait for four of his six children - the others received his portrait bust by Georg Kolbe. The painting shown here was intended for his daughter Cäcilie, another for Leo Lewin, the important art collector (and her brother).

As a Jew, Cäcilie suffered persecution by the National Socialists soon after the Nazis came into power. Her two sons were able to flee to South Africa in time, but Cäcilie was not. Shortly before she was deported to Auschwitz, she gave her possessions, including her art collection, to a distant non-Jewish relative, Hermine Marie Lewin, née Radespiel. The portrait thus remained in Berlin and was saved from confiscation.

Cäcilie did not survive deportation and her sons never received the painting back. Instead, the painting was sold by the descendants of Hermine Marie Lewin in 1955. Today, the painting with its eventful history can be offered free from restitution claims based on a fair and just solution. [CFN]



123001738
Max Liebermann
Bildnis des Textilfabrikanten Carl Lewin, 1922.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 20,000 - 30,000

 
$ 22,000 - 33,000

Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.