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Foundation restitutes drawing from the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Press release from 03/18/2019
A few days ago, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation restituted a drawing by the Romantic artist Carl Philipp Fohr from the Kupferstichkabinett to the heirs of its former owner Karl Mayer. The provenance of the work had been clarified during research as part of the provenance research project on the "Collection of Drawings" funded by the German Centre for the Loss of Cultural Property. Karl Mayer had already emigrated in January 1933 and lost his assets during the Nazi era.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation: "Systematic research into the provenance of our collections is essential in order to come to terms with the injustices committed during the Nazi era. I am delighted that we have once again been able to return a work to the family to whom it belongs."
The work in question is the "Portrait of a Young Man in a German Skirt/Picture of Sigismund Ruhl" (1764, pen and black ink over pencil) by the Romantic artist Carl Philipp Fohr (Heidelberg 1795 -1818 Rome). The artist, who died young, was considered one of the most talented of his time. After initial lessons from Georg Wilhelm Issel in Darmstadt, he studied at the Munich Academy. Here he became friends with the art student Sigismund Ruhl, who is depicted in the restituted portrait, and learnt oil painting from him. He broke off his studies in Munich prematurely and moved to Rome, where he briefly joined the circle of Nazarenes.
The sheet, which the Berlin museums acquired from the Leipzig auction house C.G. Boerner in 1941, can undoubtedly be attributed to Karl Mayer's collection due to the collector's stamp on the reverse. Karl Mayer (Mainz 1894 - 1976 Buenos Aires) ran a hardware wholesale business in Darmstadt. As anti-Jewish sentiment was particularly pronounced there, he went into exile even before Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor, first to Persia, then via Switzerland and the Canary Islands to Argentina. In his absence, his company was quickly declared bankrupt and aryanised. As part of the liquidation of the company, Mayer's art collection, which included books, prints, drawings and clocks, was also realised. Mayer's wife Emmi, herself a Catholic, remained in Germany with her two sons. The older son was able to emigrate to his father in 1941. The younger son was unable to follow him due to the complete ban on emigration for Jews imposed in 1941, but survived the Nazi era with his mother. He belongs to the community of heirs to whom the work has now been restituted.
