2476 - Wolfthorn, Julie. Sisters. Oil on canvas. Signed lower left and dated on the back of the stretcher, “painted 1929, restored 1975.” Stretcher dimensions: 120 x 91 cm. Framed: 125 x 95 cm.

Wolfthorn, Julie. Sisters. Oil on canvas. Signed lower left and dated on the back of the stretcher, “painted 1929, restored 1975.” Stretcher dimensions: 120 x 91 cm. Framed: 125 x 95 cm. Heike Carstensen, Life and Work of the Painter and Graphic Artist Julie Wolfthorn, No. 332. - Exhibited: 1930 Spring Exhibition of the “Association of Women Artists in Berlin,” Schöneberger Ufer 38, Berlin; Cat.: “Wolfthorn, Julie, 99. Sisters.” - 2019/2020: Kunstkaten Ahrenshoop, “Julie Wolfthorn (1864–1944). An Almost Forgotten Artist.” - A large-format, representative portrait of a child by the Berlin painter Julie Wolfthorn (1864–1944), one of the most prominent female artists in the Prussian capital at the turn of the century: In 1898, she was one of four women who became founding members of the Berlin Secession; in 1906, she founded the exhibition collective “Verbindung Bildender Künstlerinnen” (Association of Women Visual Artists) with Käthe Kollwitz, and in 1912, she was elected—along with Käthe Kollwitz—to the board of the Germany-wide Women’s Art Association and to the Secession jury. Particularly renowned for her portraits, she painted members of the Auerbach, Muthesius, Behrens, Hauptmann, Dehmel, Rohlfs, Lachmann, Landauer, and Baedeker families, among others. “The list of those she portrayed reads like a Who’s Who of society at the time” (Carstensen). When the National Socialists came to power, Wolfthorn’s life changed radically. Deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 at nearly 80 years of age, she survived for two years and continued to work secretly even there. - The painting, stylistically close to New Objectivity, was exhibited in March/April 1930 at the spring exhibition of the “Association of Women Artists in Berlin” and mentioned in a review in *Germania*: “Julie Wolfthorn has contributed a decorative painting, ‘Sisters,’ which is ideally suited as an interesting ornament for modern living spaces” (“Large and Small Galleries: Spring Exhibitions,” in: Germania, Berlin, March 19, 1930). - Wolfthorn herself commented on the creation of the portrait in a New Year’s greeting to her friend Carl Eduard Eeg: “I send you my warmest New Year’s greetings from Hanover. ... I am painting three children on a canvas here. A very difficult task. Oh, in art one is constantly faced with almost unsolvable puzzles and can never say that one can!” (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg; Carl Eduard Eeg Estate, ABK 3347, Inventory 503; card with “New Year’s Greeting for 1930,” Julie Wolfthorn to Carl Eduard Eeg, undated). - Aside from the date on the reverse side of the stretcher—presumably left there by the restorer—the back bears remnants of an old label from the Berlin shipping company “Gustav Knauer,” an old numbering from an “art association,” as well as a handwritten, signed note by the artist on the middle stretcher bar: “The painting must not be varnished; it is coated with wax varnish. It may only be wiped with a soft cloth.” - The canvas has been newly stretched; there are two small patches on the reverse. - Provenance: Leo Spik, Berlin, 2004; in a Berlin private collection ever since. - This lot is not suitable for shipping by package. The buyer must arrange for pickup or transport via a shipping company.