Lot 321
Frame image
Raumbeispiel
321
Wilhelm Schmid
Selbstbildnis, Um 1929/30.
Oil and tempera on board
Estimate:
€ 10,000 / $ 10,700 Sold:
€ 12,700 / $ 13,589 (incl. surcharge)
Selbstbildnis. Um 1929/30.
Oil and tempera on board.
65 x 54 cm (25.5 x 21.2 in).
• Schmid was a founding member of the important avant-garde group ‘Novembergruppe’ 1918 and a pioneer of New Objectivity
• His art-historical relevance only recently became subject to research: during his lifetime he was considered the main representative of New Objectivity and Magical Realism
• His rediscovery was celebrated with the exhibitions “Neu.Sachlich.Schweiz” at the KunstMuseum Winterthur in 2017 and the major solo show “Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne” at the Museum Potsdam in 2018/19
• One of the artist's early three known self-portraits executed in oil from his best period in the 1920s
• Notable provenance: From the Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, which was decisive for the development of Modern Art .
We are grateful to Dr. Patricia Nussbaum for her kind expert advice. The work is registered in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
PROVENANCE:
Kunstausstellung Kühl, Dresden (with the label on the reverse, after 1924)
Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau (until September 23, 1934).
Estate of Dr. Ismar Littmann, Breslau
(inherited from Dr. Ismar Littmann on September 23, 1934, until ca. 1934/35: Dresdner Bank).
Dresdner Bank, Breslau (as security from the above, bank mandate “Schwedenberg (Breslau branch)“).
Auction house Max Perl, Berlin, February 26/27, 1935
(consigned by the above, passed).
Dresdner Bank, Breslau
(bank mandate “Schwedenberg (Breslau branch)“).
State-owned (since August 15, 1935: en-bloc acquisition of pledged property and own property of Dresdner Bank through the Prussian State).
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
(since December 10, 1936: taken over from the above in line with decree Vd 29/36).
Nationalgalerie East Berlin (belatedly inventoried in 1968).
Nationalgalerie, State Museums Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
(since 1991: Inventory no. A IV 204, merger of East/West collections).
Returned to the heirs after Dr. Ismar Littmann, Breslau (2022).
No pending restitution claims.
EXHIBITION:
Exhibition of modern french paintings (École de Paris), Beaux Arts Gallery, London, June 7 - June 24, no year (1933), no. 42.
Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe, Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam, September 29, 2018 - January 21, 2019, cat. no. 2 (with illu. 46, pp. 100, 212).
LITERATURE:
Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau, inventory, 1930, no. 285.
Max Perl, Berlin, Bücher des 15.-20. Jahrh.: darunter Bücher aus der Bibliothek Robert Steinberg, Bielefeld ; Gemälde, Aquarelle, Handzeichnungen, Graphik, Kunstgewerbe, Plastik, 188th auction, February 26/27, 1935, no. 2566.
Inventory catalog State Museums Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Gemälde des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Friedegund Weidemann, Berlin 1976, p. 63 (with black-and-white illu.).
Lynn Rother, Kunst durch Kredit. Die Berliner Museen und ihre Erwerbungen von der Dresdner Bank 1935, Berlin 2017, pp. 13-51 (on the acquisitions made by Berlin museums) and p. 432 (on this work).
ARCHIVE MATERIAL:
List 40 (bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), no date [August 15, 1935], in: GStA-PK, I. HA Rep. 151, HB, no. 1234.
List 40 (bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), annotated copy of the Schlossmuseum, July 30, 1935, in: SMB-ZA, I/KGM 2.
List 40 (bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), annotated copy of the Gemäldegalerie, no date [July 30, 1935], ll. 1-134, in: SMB-ZA, I/GG 341.
List 40 ( bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), annotated copy of S. v. Carolsfeld, no date [August 1935], in: KGM archive.
"He was one of the first, if not the first, to return from the exuberance of Expressionism to natural accuracy, with such sharp drawing and such peculiar coloring, that he appeared as a leader of New Objectivity and Magical Realism before these terms even came into existence.”
Max Osborn, Wilhelm Schmid, in: Das Werk, 1929, p. 87.
Oil and tempera on board.
65 x 54 cm (25.5 x 21.2 in).
• Schmid was a founding member of the important avant-garde group ‘Novembergruppe’ 1918 and a pioneer of New Objectivity
• His art-historical relevance only recently became subject to research: during his lifetime he was considered the main representative of New Objectivity and Magical Realism
• His rediscovery was celebrated with the exhibitions “Neu.Sachlich.Schweiz” at the KunstMuseum Winterthur in 2017 and the major solo show “Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne” at the Museum Potsdam in 2018/19
• One of the artist's early three known self-portraits executed in oil from his best period in the 1920s
• Notable provenance: From the Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, which was decisive for the development of Modern Art .
We are grateful to Dr. Patricia Nussbaum for her kind expert advice. The work is registered in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné.
PROVENANCE:
Kunstausstellung Kühl, Dresden (with the label on the reverse, after 1924)
Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau (until September 23, 1934).
Estate of Dr. Ismar Littmann, Breslau
(inherited from Dr. Ismar Littmann on September 23, 1934, until ca. 1934/35: Dresdner Bank).
Dresdner Bank, Breslau (as security from the above, bank mandate “Schwedenberg (Breslau branch)“).
Auction house Max Perl, Berlin, February 26/27, 1935
(consigned by the above, passed).
Dresdner Bank, Breslau
(bank mandate “Schwedenberg (Breslau branch)“).
State-owned (since August 15, 1935: en-bloc acquisition of pledged property and own property of Dresdner Bank through the Prussian State).
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
(since December 10, 1936: taken over from the above in line with decree Vd 29/36).
Nationalgalerie East Berlin (belatedly inventoried in 1968).
Nationalgalerie, State Museums Berlin, Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation
(since 1991: Inventory no. A IV 204, merger of East/West collections).
Returned to the heirs after Dr. Ismar Littmann, Breslau (2022).
No pending restitution claims.
EXHIBITION:
Exhibition of modern french paintings (École de Paris), Beaux Arts Gallery, London, June 7 - June 24, no year (1933), no. 42.
Umkämpfte Wege der Moderne. Wilhelm Schmid und die Novembergruppe, Potsdam Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, Potsdam, September 29, 2018 - January 21, 2019, cat. no. 2 (with illu. 46, pp. 100, 212).
LITERATURE:
Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau, inventory, 1930, no. 285.
Max Perl, Berlin, Bücher des 15.-20. Jahrh.: darunter Bücher aus der Bibliothek Robert Steinberg, Bielefeld ; Gemälde, Aquarelle, Handzeichnungen, Graphik, Kunstgewerbe, Plastik, 188th auction, February 26/27, 1935, no. 2566.
Inventory catalog State Museums Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Gemälde des 20. Jahrhunderts, ed. by Friedegund Weidemann, Berlin 1976, p. 63 (with black-and-white illu.).
Lynn Rother, Kunst durch Kredit. Die Berliner Museen und ihre Erwerbungen von der Dresdner Bank 1935, Berlin 2017, pp. 13-51 (on the acquisitions made by Berlin museums) and p. 432 (on this work).
ARCHIVE MATERIAL:
List 40 (bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), no date [August 15, 1935], in: GStA-PK, I. HA Rep. 151, HB, no. 1234.
List 40 (bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), annotated copy of the Schlossmuseum, July 30, 1935, in: SMB-ZA, I/KGM 2.
List 40 (bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), annotated copy of the Gemäldegalerie, no date [July 30, 1935], ll. 1-134, in: SMB-ZA, I/GG 341.
List 40 ( bank mandate ‘Schwedenberg’, Breslau branch), annotated copy of S. v. Carolsfeld, no date [August 1935], in: KGM archive.
"He was one of the first, if not the first, to return from the exuberance of Expressionism to natural accuracy, with such sharp drawing and such peculiar coloring, that he appeared as a leader of New Objectivity and Magical Realism before these terms even came into existence.”
Max Osborn, Wilhelm Schmid, in: Das Werk, 1929, p. 87.
The youthful, self-confident self-portrait by Wilhelm Schmid largely has the same provenance as Hermann Max Pechstein's "Die Ruhende" (Evening Sale). On display in London in 1933 as a loan from the Littmann Collection, the picture was offered by the Dresdner Bank as a security for the Littmann family in the auction at Max Perl in February 1935,. The painting remained unsold. However, since the Littmann family was not able to redeem it due to Nazi persecution, it remained with the bank. After a spectacular major purchase the Prussian State made in August 1935, the self-portrait became part of the collection of the Berlin Nationalgalerie. In 2022, the museum decided to return three paintings from this bank security to the heirs of Dr. Ismar Littmann - a historic event. [AT]
321
Wilhelm Schmid
Selbstbildnis, Um 1929/30.
Oil and tempera on board
Estimate:
€ 10,000 / $ 10,700 Sold:
€ 12,700 / $ 13,589 (incl. surcharge)