Drawings from the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett handed over to the Dresden State Art Collections
Press release from 04/10/2017
The Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin recently handed over 43 ink drawings by Josef Hegenbarth (1884-1962) to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD). The drawings had come to the Staatliche Museen in East Berlin in 1958 as part of the repatriation of artworks from the Soviet Union and had been kept as foreign property ever since.
They will be on display from 7 May 2017 in the exhibition "Little Muck and Caliph Stork - Hegenbarth illustrates Hauff's fairy tale collection 'The Caravan'" at the Josef Hegenbarth Archive, the branch of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett.
The works are a portfolio with a total of 43 drawings (brush and black ink on paper) of various sizes, which the Dresden artist Josef Hegenbarth created around 1942. They illustrate Wilhelm Hauff's fairy tale collection "The Caravan".
The portfolio of illustrations was located in Wriezen (Brandenburg) in 1943 for the purpose of publication in the "Bücher des Frontarbeiters" series. It was confiscated by the Red Army in 1945/46 and transported to the Soviet Union. Since their return in 1958, the drawings have been kept in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett as foreign property. Research by the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden into the whereabouts of some of Hegenbarth's illustration series revealed that the drawings in Berlin were the artist's private property at the time of their removal to Wriezen.
After Hegenbarth's death, his widow Johanna appointed the Kupferstich-Kabinett der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden as his sole heir in her will. The SKD are thus the owners of the 43 brush and ink drawings. The Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett preserves Josef Hegenbarth's extensive artistic and archival estate in his former home and studio.