Die Nacht - Kunstsammlung NRW / Online-Sammlung

Back

gemeinfrei
Foto: Walter Klein, Düsseldorf

Information

Artist

Max Beckmann

1884
Leipzig, Deutschland

1950
New York, USA

Work data

Material/Technique

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

Image: 134 × 155 cm
Frame: 134 x 155 x 2,5 cm

Signature

Bez. u. halbl.: "August 18 - März 19 Beckmann"

Accession Number

0140

Catalogue Raisonné

Göpel 200

Acquisition year

1963

Provenance

To date, the ownership status of the painting “Die Nacht” during the early 1930s remains unresolved. At this point, the absence of reliable sources makes it impossible to determine who owned the picture, and when. Possible former owners have called for the restitution of “Die Nacht” demanding that it be returned to them. During the 1920s, the picture was owned by the legendary art dealer Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937), who maintained galleries in Düsseldorf and Berlin. Flechtheim’s focus was French art, but he occasionally included artists from other countries in his program. Flechtheim was celebrated for his enthusiasm for modern art, for his publications, and for his legendary parties. “Die Nacht” belonged to him jointly with the New York-based gallerist J.B. Neumann (1887-1961), another great enthusiast for the works of the historic avant-gardes. Later “Die Nacht” belonged to the Jewish hops merchant Heinrich Fromm (1886-1959), who held a partnership in Günther Franke’s art gallery, the Graphisches Kabinett. Fromm was a passionate collector, a supporter of modern art, and actively engaged in various cultural institutions in Munich. The Kunstsammlung is currently attempting to discover the ownership status of the picture in the 1930s. After the transfer of power by the National Socialists in January of 1933, Flechtheim and Fromm – along with all other Jews – was defamed and persecuted. Flechtheim managed to flee to London but was unable to repeat his earlier successes as an art dealer until his death in 1937. Fromm was interned in Dachau, but succeeded in fleeing to England in 1939.

Research conducted so far on the painting’s provenance has revealed the following: The painting “Die Nacht” was purchased from Max Beckmann in January 1920 by the art dealer J. B. Neumann, possibly with the financial support of his financier Heinrich Fromm, a hop merchant and Beckmann collector from Munich. A previous transfer or possible ownership by the Frankfurt antiquarian bookseller Walter Carl (1884-1956) can as yet only be ascertained from Erhard and Barbara Göpel’s catalogue raisonné. In 1922, Neumann brokered “Die Nacht” to a Berlin collector named Max Grünbaum in whose ownership the work verifiably remained until about 1926 before it was sold, probably on his behalf, a year later. In December 1927, the Berlin gallery Goldschmidt-Wallerstein liquidated an unnamed Berlin art collection, which included “Die Nacht,” as part of a sales exhibition. According to the catalog, a buyer had already been found for the painting at the time. It was presumably Galerie Alfred Flechtheim, which represented Max Beckmann from 1927 to 1930 together with J. B. Neumann and his Graphisches Kabinett in Munich, for this is where “Die Nacht” can be located from February 1928 at the latest. It is certain that the art dealer owned half of the painting together with J. B. Neumann by March 1932 at the latest, as Neumann made Alfred Flechtheim an offer to buy all of Beckmann’s works in February 1932. Flechtheim, who for financial reasons had not extended his representation of Beckmann with his gallery in October 1930, accepted this offer in a letter dated March 14, 1932 specifically citing the painting “Die Nacht.” Whether the deal was legally concluded is disputed by researchers due to a lack of evidence. What is certain is that with Flechtheim’s knowledge and consent the painting was in the Graphisches Kabinett in Munich, managed by Günther Franke, during the negotiations. Franke had become a partner in the art dealership in 1930 and between 1930 and 1932 used not only the name “Graphisches Kabinett” in public but also the name “Galerie J. B. Neumann u. Guenther Franke.” As yet, everything indicates that J. B. Neumann purchased “Die Nacht.” He then passed the painting to Heinrich Fromm, who was a co-partner of the Graphisches Kabinett until 1935, to settle a debt. A transfer of ownership from Fromm to the art dealership, which had meanwhile been renamed Graphisches Kabinett Günther Franke KG, or immediately to Günther Franke himself finally took place in 1939 at the latest, when Fromm had to emigrate. After the war, Fromm waived his claims for restitution against Franke. The Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen purchased the painting from Günther Franke in 1963.

In order to make a lawful decision on whether the work “Die Nacht” can be restituted, the involvement of a neutral third instance is necessary due to the inconclusive state of research. Together with the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen wishes to submit the case to the new Arbitration Panel on Nazi-Looted Cultural Property. Already in 2019, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen had offered the heirs of the possible former owners and their legal representatives to bring the painting before the Advisory Commission. However, this proposal was not accepted by the legal representatives at the time.

For further information on the state of research and the ongoing procedure, please contact:
Dr. Vivien Trommer
Head of Collection
trommer@kunstsammlung.de

Credit line

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

Exhibitions

Das XX. Jahrhundert. Ein Jahrhundert Kunst in Deutschland, 3.9.1999-8.1.2000, Neue Nationalglerie, Berlin
Circus Beckmann. Werke aus dem Sprengel Museum Hannover, der Sammlung Ahlers und internationalen Sammlungen, 20.6.-19.9.1998, Sprengel Museum Hannover
Unser 20. Jahrhundert - Meisterwerke von Picasso bis Beuys, 14.7.-28.10.2000, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Max Beckmann. Un peintre dans l'histoire, 9.9.2002-3.1.2003, Musée national d'art moderne, Paris
Max Beckmann, 12.2.-3.5.2003, Tate Modern, London
Max Beckmann, 24.6.-29.9.2003, The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Masterpieces of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen / Meisterwerke der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, 17.10.2008-30.5.2009, Nagoya City Art Museum, Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo, Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe
Die Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen zu Gast in Gottorf. Picasso, Klee, Beckmann, Matisse und weitere Künstler in Schloß Gottorf, 18.7.-24.10.2009, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloß Gottorf, Schleswig
Max Beckmann. Die Nacht, 5.9.-29.11.1997, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
George Grosz. Berlin - New York, 5.5.-29.7.1995, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
Silent Revolution - Eine neue Sammlungspräsentation, 26.2.-12.6.2010, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, K21 Ständehaus, Düsseldorf
Alfred Flechtheim.com - Kunsthändler der Avantgarde, 8.10.2013-11.1.2014, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, K20 Grabbeplatz
museum global. Mikrogeschichten einer ex-zentrischen Moderne/museum global. Microhistories of an Ex-centric Modernism, 9.11.2018-9.3.2019, K20 Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Grabbeplatz