Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation restitutes works from the Buchthal Collection
Press release from 08/15/2017
The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is returning nine works from the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin to the heirs of the Jewish entrepreneur and collector Eugen Moritz Buchthal. One of them, the etching "Fehmarnhäuser mit großem Baum" (1908) by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, is being bought back by the Foundation for the Kupferstichkabinett.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the SPK, says: "As with almost all restitution cases in recent years, we were able to find a fair and just solution in this case too. I am very grateful to the heirs of Eugen Buchthal for making it possible for us to acquire the Kirchner print for the Kupferstichkabinett."
Lothar Fremy (Rechtsanwälte Rosbach & Fremy), who represents the heirs of Eugen Buchthal, says: "The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation has made every effort to find a fair solution together with the heirs of Eugen Moritz Buchthal regarding the works seized from the collector due to persecution and has thus set a further example of how such matters can be brought to a fair solution within the framework of mutual and respectful cooperation. The Buchthal heirs are very grateful to the Foundation for its responsible handling of this issue, which is still largely unresolved today."
Eugen Moritz Buchthal, born on 11 March 1878 in Berlin, was co-owner of Seeler-Herrmann-Damenmäntel- und Kleiderfabrik & Co. He was married to Therese Wolff, with whom he had three children. In 1922/23, the couple had Hans and Wassili Luckhardt and Franz Hoffmann build a prestigious expressionist brick villa in Berlin-Westend (remodelled in 1928 in the New Objectivity style), which is now one of Berlin's architectural monuments. Eugen Buchthal was also a passionate collector of contemporary art. His collection included works by Otto Müller, Emil Nolde, Lyonel Feininger, Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Franz Marc, often acquired directly from the artists themselves.
Eugen Buchthal and his family were persecuted as Jews by the National Socialists. Buchthal's son Hugo, who had studied under Panofsky, emigrated to London in 1934, where he worked at the Warburg Library, his daughter Anne Gerda in April 1936, followed later by his youngest son Wolfgang. In May 1936, Buchthal sold the family residence at Lindenallee 22, but remained living there until he also emigrated. He had already consigned a large number of graphic works from his art collection to Galerie Nierendorf in January 1936. Some of these were acquired by the Berlin State Museums in the same month. In 1938, Buchthal and his wife finally emigrated to London, where he died in 1954.
The Kupferstichkabinett had acquired 16 works from Eugen Buchthal's collection through the Nierendorf Gallery. In the course of the "Degenerate Art" campaign, some of these were confiscated in 1937, leaving only nine in existence today: 2 lithographs by Erich Heckel, 3 etchings by Wilhelm Lehmbruck, an etching by Paula Modersohn-Becker, a woodcut by Emil Nolde, a lithograph by Otto Müller and an etching by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
The repurchased work is a blue proof of an etching (image: 26.7 x 34.7 cm, sheet: 36.6 x 47.8 cm). In the summer of 1908, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner travelled to the Baltic Sea island of Fehmarn for the first time. Among other things, he created several etchings during his stay, of which only a few copies have survived. One of the special features of "Fehmarnhäuser mit großem Baum" is that the etching is one of the few graphic works that Kirchner had printed in blue. In addition to the sheet in Berlin, a proof signed and labelled as such by Kirchner, there are only three other blue copies. The printing plate has been preserved in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, while the painting with the identical motif is on loan from a private collection to the Städel in Frankfurt. Stylistically, the print is not a "typical" Kirchner, but rather belongs to Post-Impressionism. This makes the work a speciality in the Kupferstichkabinett's rich collection of Kirchner works - it is a "Kirchner before Kirchner". In the collection, it is the perfect overture for a series of works that were also created on Fehmarn in the following years.