Margarete Mauthner (born Margarete Alexander on July 7, 1863, in Berlin; died April 24, 1947, in Johannesburg) was a German art collector, patron, translator and author, persecuted by Nazis because of her Jewish origins. Her works were published by Bruno Cassirer. [1]
Coming from an upper-middle-class family, she was educated first by a governess, then in a secondary school. She was married twice. With her first husband she had a daughter who died in 1946. Her second husband was Edmund Mauthner (1868-1909). [2]
Mautner translated monographs published by Bruno Cassirer as well as articles for Karl Scheffler's art magazine Kunst und Künstler. In 1917 she wrote her two-volume autobiography Rückblick, in which she traced the developments of the 19th century (the March Revolution, the founding of the Reich, the Gründerzeit, the crisis, the rise of the Jewish bourgeoisie).
The Alexander/Mauthner family lived at Matthäikirchstraße 1 in a house built in 1840, which was destroyed in World War II and is now the site of the Philharmonic Hall. Robert Musil called the building The Enchanted House. Mauthner's manuscript of her autobiography, Rückblick, was rediscovered by Musil biographer Karl Corino, and published in 2004 under the title Das verzauberte Haus. [3] It describes the interconnections between Mauthner, her brother, her cousin, Paul Cassirer (like his brother Bruno a publisher), and Musil. Das verzauberte Haus also plays a significant role in Musil (Die Versuchung der stillen Veronika, Die Schwärmer) and was also the title of a 1908 Musil work. [4]
Mauthner was instrumental in making Vincent van Gogh's art known in Germany, translating his letters. [5]
Among Mauthner's many translations since 1904 is The Artful Art of Making Enemies by the Anglo-American painter James McNeill Whistler, which deals with the libel trial of the art critic John Ruskin, which significantly shaped today's views on defamation and (in)freedoms of (art) criticism.
During the Nazi era, Mauthner helped family members to escape by providing financial support for their emigration. She fled Germany in 1939, leaving her possessions behind. [6] She emigrated to South Africa, where she died in 1947.
Mauthner's heirs filed lawsuits to attempt to recover Van Gogh paintings that Mauthner had owned before the Nazis came to power. In 2003 they filed a claim, Orkin v. Taylor, against the Hollywood movie star Elizabeth Taylor for Van Gogh's View of the Hospice and the Chapel of Saint-Remy . [7] [8] Elizabeth Taylor's father, Francis Lenn Taylor, who was an art dealer in partnership with dealer Howard Young of Young Galleries. Francis Taylor had acquired the painting in 1963. [9] [10] The case was dismissed because the court held that California's statute of limitations had expired. [11] Taylor later sold View of the Hospice and the Chapel of Saint-Remy at auction for 12.2 million euros. [12] [13]
Mauthner's heirs also filed a claim for the restitution of Van Gogh's drawing, View of Les Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, in the Oskar Reinhart collection "Am Römerholz", which is under the control of the Federal Office of Culture. [14] They argued that Mauthner had sold under pressure of the threat she faced from Nazis. [15] The Swiss government disagreed, saying that Reinhart had bought the work at a fair market price. [16]
Julius Meier-Graefe was a German art critic and novelist.
The fame of Vincent van Gogh began to spread in France and Belgium during the last year of his life, and in the years after his death in the Netherlands and Germany. His friendship with his younger brother Theo was documented in numerous letters they exchanged from August 1872 onwards. The letters were published in three volumes in 1914 by Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, Theo's widow, who also generously supported most of the early Van Gogh exhibitions with loans from the artist's estate. Publication of the letters helped spread the compelling mystique of Vincent van Gogh, the intense and dedicated painter who died young, throughout Europe and the rest of the world.
The Berlin Secession was an art movement established in Germany on May 2, 1898. Formed in reaction to the Association of Berlin Artists, and the restrictions on contemporary art imposed by Kaiser Wilhelm II, 65 artists "seceded," demonstrating against the standards of academic or government-endorsed art. The movement is classified as a form of German Modernism, and came on the heels of several other secessions in Germany, including Jugendstil and the Munich Secession.
Paul Cassirer was a German art dealer and editor who played a significant role in the promotion of the work of artists of the Berlin Secession and of French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, in particular that of Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cézanne.
The Kronprinzenpalais is a former Royal Prussian residence on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built in 1663 and renovated in 1857 according to plans by Heinrich Strack in Neoclassical style. From 1919 to 1937, it was home to the modern art collection of the National Gallery. Damaged during the Allied bombing in World War II, the Kronprinzenpalais was rebuilt from 1968 to 1970 by Richard Paulick as part of the Forum Fridericianum. In 1990, the German Reunification Treaty was signed in the listed building. Since then, it has been used for events and exhibitions.
Theodor Gustav Pauli was a German art historian and museum director in Bremen and Hamburg.
View of the Asylum and Chapel of Saint-Rémy is an oil on canvas painting by Vincent van Gogh that he painted in autumn 1889 at Saint-Rémy, France, where he had voluntarily incarcerated himself in a lunatic asylum.
Henry Percy Newman was a German merchant and art collector. The entrepreneur, who came from a banking family, was one of the leading grain importers in the German Empire. His important art collection included works by the French and German impressionists.
Many priceless artworks by the Dutch post-impressionist artist Vincent van Gogh were looted by Nazis during 1933–1945, mostly from Jewish collectors forced into exile or murdered.
Max Silberberg was a major cultural figure in Breslau, a German Jewish entrepreneur, art collector and patron who was robbed and murdered by the Nazis. His art collection, among the finest of its era, has been the object of numerous restitution claims.
Curt Glaser was a German Jewish art historian, art critic and collector who was persecuted by the Nazis.
Alexander Lewin was a German Jewish entrepreneur and art collector who was persecuted and plundered by the Nazis.
Hugo Simon was a German Jewish banker, politician and art collector who was persecuted by the Nazis. He was a former owner of Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream. After the November Revolution of 1918, he was briefly Minister of Finance in the Prussian Council of People's Representatives as a member of the USPD. Alfred Döblin dealt with this short time as a politician in his novel November 1918.
Max Meirowsky was a German-Jewish industrialist and art collector persecuted by the Nazis.
Walter Bondy was a German painter, art dealer, and critic, of Jewish ancestry; associated with the Berlin Secession.
Margarete Eisenmann was a Jewish art collector who was murdered in the Holocaust
Hans Mackowsky was a German art historian.
Margarete Oppenheim was a German art collector and patron. She was among the first personalities to collect works of modern art in Germany and owned one of the largest collection in Germany.
Walter Feilchenfeldt was a German art dealer and publisher.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)Mauthner's heir, Andrew Orkin, sued Taylor in 2004 "asserting that has Mauthner's heir, he was the true owner of the painting. His case was dismissed because the court held that California's statute of limitations had expired. Orkin v. Taylor, 487 F.3d 734 (9th Cir. 2007). Orkin had also argued for the existence of a right to sue under the Holocaust Victims Redress Act of 1998, an argument which courts never adopted. As a result of the dismissal, the parties never litigated the factual question of the validity of the sale
As for Mauthner, according to the 2004 lawsuit filed by her heir Andrew Orkin against Taylor, a 1928 catalogue raisonné (a book identifying an exhaustive list of a particular artist's entire body of work), Mauthner had the painting by 1928, and a second catalogue raisonné in 1939 also listed Mauthner as the owner. Before Mauthner, the work had belonged to renowned art dealer Paul Cassirer, who acquired it in 1907. The parties to the lawsuit did not agree as to when Cassirer ceased having it.
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