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Restitution of a drawing by Jakob Philipp Hackert from the Kupferstichkabinett
Press release from 04/30/2019
Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation returns the drawing to the heirs of the previous Jewish owner - the work was sold in 1939 in an emergency situation
- English version: please find PDF below German text -
Yesterday, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation handed over the ink brush drawing "Auf Hiddensee" (1764) by Jakob Philipp Hackert to the descendants of Friedrich Guttsmann. In the course of provenance research in the Kupferstichkabinett of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, it had emerged that Guttsmann had sold the drawing against the backdrop of his persecution by the National Socialists.
The sales representative and merchant Friedrich Emil Guttsmann (Breslau 1888 - 1959 Ängelholm, Sweden) lost both his job and his long-time home in 1936 due to his Jewish ancestry. The financial hardship this caused him, his wife and two sons forced him to sell his valuables and large parts of his home furnishings, including the Hackert drawing. In May 1939, Guttsmann offered the drawing to the Nationalgalerie for sale for 120 RM. Director Paul Ortwin Rave negotiated a price reduction, as the drawing was in a rather crumpled condition, and finally paid RM 100 for it.
Hermann Parzinger, President of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said on the occasion of the restitution: "After we came across the previous history of the work while checking the provenance of the collection of drawings, we contacted the heirs and offered to return it. I am delighted that they came to Berlin in person to collect the work." As part of the provenance research project on the "Collection of Drawings" at the Kupferstichkabinett, around 1,200 works were examined over the course of three years. Five further works have since been restituted to the heirs of previous Jewish owners, and the SPK has already contacted the rightful owners of several others.
Friedrich Guttsmann was co-owner and director of the "Metallhüttenwerk Kurt Guttsmann AG" in Berlin from 1919 to 1927, and subsequently owner of the "Berliner Kranzbandfabrik GmbH". After this was taken over by a Krefeld silk weaving mill in 1932, he worked as its general representative until his dismissal in 1936. He survived the Nazi era partly because of his marriage to Henrietta Franziska Guttsmann, née Hosemann, which was declared a "privileged mixed marriage". He initially moved with her and their two sons into his mother-in-law's flat in Steglitz. Here the neighbours tried to have him banned from staying overnight. With the support of pastor Birger Forell, the Guttmanns' sons were able to emigrate to Sweden in April 1939. In 1942, however, the couple were forced to bring their younger son back under threat of deportation. The young man was able to escape from the labour camp he was sent to in 1944 in 1945, but was arrested by the Soviet occupying forces after the end of the war and sent to a camp. He emigrated to Sweden again at the end of 1947. Friedrich and Henriette Guttsmann also emigrated to Sweden in 1948, where they were only able to carry out simple jobs due to their age and illness. Friedrich Guttsmann died in 1959, his widow Henriette in 1977.
The ink brush drawing "On Hiddensee", 1764, is by Jakob Philipp Hackert (1737, Prenzlau - 1807, near Florence), who is considered one of the most famous landscape painters of Classicism. He first studied at the Royal Academy in Berlin and later in Paris. From 1768 he lived in Italy, initially in Rome, from where he travelled extensively and gained an excellent reputation. In 1786 he was appointed court painter to the King of Naples. There he also met Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, to whom he gave drawing lessons. In 1799, he fled from the French occupation to Florence. The restituted brush and ink drawing was created directly after Hackert's Berlin years, when he travelled to Stralsund, Rügen and Stockholm on behalf of the Swedish government councillor Adolf Friedrich von Olthof. The drawing from the early phase of Hackert's later prolific career shows a view of the island of Hiddensee near Rügen. Jakob Philipp Hackert is considered the "discoverer" of this Baltic Sea region for landscape painting. It was his successors Caspar David Friedrich, Philipp Otto Runge and Karl Friedrich Schinkel who made this northern region their subject.
