39 - Otto Mueller

Otto Mueller Zwei Mädchenakte am Strand Circa 1923 Watercolour and colour chalks on brownish wove paper. 68.2/68.5 x 52.8/53 cm Framed under glass. Signed 'Otto Mueller' in black lower right. A rough sketch of a nude in blue chalk to verso. - Slightly faded. Von Lüttichau/Pirsig-Marshall P 1923/27 (459, 778) This work is being offered for sale based on an agreement between the consignor and the heirs of Ismar Littmann, which was reached through the mediation of Kunsthaus Lempertz KG. The agreement has led to an amicable resolution of all outstanding issues regarding the provenance and ownership of the work, such that the purchaser acquires unrestricted ownership, free from claims of any kind. Provenance The artist’s studio (circa 1923); Dr. Ismar Littmann Collection, Breslau; Dr. Paul Schäfer, Breslau/Berlin; consigned to Max Perl, Berlin, Auction 188, 26–28 Feb. 1935, lot 2279 ('Zwei weibliche Akte am Meer'); confiscated by the Gestapo, Berlin, at the Max Perl auction house, 24 Feb. 1935; purchased by the Nationalgalerie, Berlin, from the collection confiscated from Max Perl during Auction 188 (3 Dec. 1935–16 Aug. 1937; inventoried for the Kupferstichkabinett under number F III 2303); confiscated by the German Reich as part of the 'Degenerate Art' campaign and registered under the Nazi inventory number EK No. 12333; Bernhard A. Böhmer, Güstrow (purchased 14 Feb. 1940); Private collection, Hamburg (acquired from the aforementioned owner, 1940–1959); Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart, 34th auction, 20–21 Nov. 1959, lot 585; Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart, 36th auction, 3–4 May 1961, lot 325; thenceforth, Private collection, South Germany; 2026: amicable settlement with the heirs of Ismar Littmann. Exhibitions Breslau 1931 (Schlesisches Museum der Bildenden Künste), Gedächtnis-Ausstellung Otto Mueller 1874–1930 (neither listed nor illustrated in the catalogue); Berlin 1931 (Nationalgalerie im Kronprinzenpalais), Otto Mueller Gedenk-Ausstellung, p. 28, cat. no. 72 Literature Reg. the Littmann Collection, cf. Anja Heuß, Die Sammlung Littmann und die Aktion 'Entartete Kunst‘, in: Raub und Restitution. Kulturgut aus jüdischem Besitz von 1933 bis heute. Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung des Jüdischen Museums Berlin in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Jüdischen Museum Frankfurt a.M., ed. Inka Bertz, Göttingen 2008, p. 69-74; Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau, "Aus Privatbesitz beschlagnahmt: Otto Muellers Landschaft mit Figuren der Sammlung Ismar Littmann“, in: Das verfemte Meisterwerk. Schicksalswege Moderner Kunst im „Dritten Reich“. Schriften der Forschungsstelle 'Entartete Kunst', vol. IV, ed. Uwe Fleckner, Berlin 2009, p. 465-487; Carolin Metzner, Die Sammlung Ismar Littmann – eine jüdische Sammlung in Breslau während der Weimarer Republik, in: KUR – Kunst und Recht, vol. 6, 2009, p. 193–197 Today Otto Mueller is considered one of the most important protagonists of the “Brücke” artists association. With his watercolour “Zwei Mädchenakte am Strand”, a work by his hand that is important on account of its outstanding execution, its harmonious and reserved palette, and its complex but now clarified provenance is coming up for auction. In a hilly landscape by the sea, which is bounded on the right by a tree, our gaze falls on two bathing women. This theme, familiar since the Renaissance and dealt with in every epoch of art history, became a subject matter frequently painted by the “Brücke” artists, who used it to depict nudes in harmony with nature. While Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Hermann Max Pechstein usually opted for luminously bold colours and impasto brushwork in their depictions of nudes in the open air, Mueller’s bathers are muted in terms of colour and reserved in terms of expression. The silvery grey contour lines adeptly used to delineate the volumes set down in the form of two-dimensional shapes are equally characteristic of Mueller’s style. The two women seem to be turned towards each other and in the midst of a conversation – but their physiognomies reveal nothing. In Mueller’s work, the timeless sense of refuge in nature can only be achieved through the renunciation of human individuality. This work belonged to the extremely extensive and important collection of the Wrocław lawyer and art patron Ismar Littmann (1878-1934). After studying in Rostock and being admitted to the bar, Littmann specialised in commercial law and primarily worked for Silesian textile companies. During the First World War he began collecting art, initially works on paper and then later paintings as well; in total, he gathered together a collection of over 6,000 works. Ruth Haller, his youngest daughter, recalls: “The whole flat was hung full of paintings, there was no empty space anywhere […]. In the dining room, all the walls were covered with works by Corinth, and my oldest brother had paintings by Otto Mueller in his room” (cited in: Otto Mueller und sein Netzwerk in Breslau, exh. cat. Berlin/Wroclaw 2018/19, p. 131). The collection included works by artists as famous as Otto Dix, Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Pechstein, Lovis Corinth and, above all, Otto Mueller, who worked at the Wrocław (then Breslau) Academy: Littmann owned 128 paintings and graphic works by him alone. He was, after all, a great patron of Otto Mueller, who was a constant guest in the Littmann home, and he purchased many works directly from the artist, usually in the same year they were created. Littmann also developed Mueller’s fame through generous loans to exhibitions, such as the “Otto Mueller-Gedenkausstellung”, which opened in Berlin’s Kronprinzenpalais in 1931 and whose visitors, as indicated by a contemporary photograph (ill.), could admire “Zwei Mädchenakte am Strand”. During the Great Depression, Ismar Littmann increasingly found himself in financial difficulty. He used several of his artworks stored in museums as collateral for loans from the savings bank in Wrocław. Littmann had partially financed his collection through loans, but he was still able to make his payments until 1933. Only after he was prohibited from practising his profession did he become unable to make his payments. In 1933 he turned a block of approximately 3,600 graphic works over to a friend, the Breslau dentist Paul Schaefer (1881-1946), as collateral for a loan. The political and economic pressure on Ismar Littmann further intensified after the Nazis gained power on 20 January 1933: as a Jewish lawyer, he was professionally and privately exposed to existential and systematic persecution. The decree of 31 March 1933, suspending all Jewish lawyers as well as the “Law on Admission to the Bar” of 7 April 1933, led to his exclusion from professional life; Littmann’s admission to the bar was permanently revoked on 22 June 1933. Ismar Littmann died of complications resulting from his attempted suicide at the Jewish hospital in Wrocław on 23 September 1934. To finance their flight as refugees, the family very quickly decided to consign around 200 paintings and graphic works from the art collection to the Berlin auction house of Max Perl; this is also documented among collectors with whom he was friends and banks. Two days before the auction on 24 February 1935, numerous works, including “Zwei Mädchenakte am Strand” were confiscated by the Gestapo as “degenerate” art. We thank the Littmann family and their representatives for their positive and trusting cooperation and important information.