Max Silberberg owned Manet's La Sultane from 1928 to 1937, according to the Kunsthaus Zürich

The provenance of Manet's La Sultane, also known as Woman in Oriental Garb, has changed so often that it can be hard to keep up. The ownership by Holocaust victim Max Silberberg, which was challenged and undermined by speculation in previous iterations of the provenance published by the Bührle Foundation, has now been definitively confirmed by the Kunsthaus Zürich. 

Silberberg owned the painting continuously from 1928 to 1937.

The Kunsthaus Zürich publishes a page with "drawers" of documents and information from the collection.

https://www.kunsthaus.ch/en/buehrle-provenance-drawers/

"DRAWER B. MANET – MAX SILBERBERG" as of October 22, 2024

"La Sultane" in the possession of Max Silberberg

The documents and exhibition catalogues on view here refer to Max Silberberg, who verifiably owned the painting "La Sultane" from 1928 to 1937.

The earliest indication that the art collector Max Silberberg of Breslau (Wroclaw) was interested in Manet’s "La Sultane" is a memo of the Justin Thannhauser art dealership. In January 1927, shortly after the opening of Thannhauser’s Berlin branch, Silberberg viewed the work there and “liked it very much” (1). To date, it has not been possible to determine who Silberberg bought the painting from or when. However, it is certain to have been in his possession by 1928. This can be deduced from the listing of “Die Sultanin” in the 1928 Galerie Matthiesen exhibition catalogue with the addition “Privatbesitz, Breslau” (“private property, Wroclaw”) (2). Just a few weeks later, from 14 April to 4 May 1928, the Parisian Galerie Bernheim-Jeune also staged a Manet exhibition (3). In conjunction with the respective exhibition label on the back of the painting, it is clear that Max Silberberg was the owner of this loan (4). Depending on the quality of the entries, catalogues raisonnés of artists’ oeuvres can provide further important indications of an artwork’s property circumstances and exhibition history. The catalogue raisonné Manet of 1932 by Paul Jamot and Georges Wildenstein likewise identifies Max Silberberg as the painting’s owner (5).

The painting "La Sultane" was presumably sent to Paris as a loan again – now to Galerie Paul Rosenberg – before the National Socialist accession to power on 30 January 1933. It remained the property of Max and Johanna Silberberg until 1937. Both were victims of the Nazi persecution of the Jews. Their son Alfred, who had managed to flee to England with his wife Gerta, received the last sign of life from his parents in late 1941, shortly before they were deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in May 1942 and murdered (6).

For conservatorial reasons the documents presented in the drawers are facsimiles of the originals.

Image captions:

Memo on Max Silberberg’s inspection of the painting at Galerie Thannhauser, Berlin, 4 January 1927; facsimile from the Galerien Thannhauser holdings. A77, ZADIK | Zentralarchiv für deutsche und internationale Kunstmarktforschung, University of Cologne

Exhibition catalogue "Édouard Manet", Galerie Matthiesen, Berlin: Elsner, 6 February – 18 March 1928, Kunsthaus Zürich, Library

Exhibition catalogue "Exposition d'œuvres de Manet au profit des “Amis du Luxembourg”, Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, 14 April – 4 May 1928, Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich

Exhibition label of Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, on the back of the painting "La Sultane"

Paul Jamot, Georges Wildenstein, "Catalogue raisonné Manet", vol. 1, Paris, 1932

Paul Jamot, Georges Wildenstein, "Catalogue raisonné Manet", vol. 2, Paris, 1932

Kunsthaus Zürich, Library

Transcript of the letter from Max Silberberg to Alfred Silberberg, 1941.

BR 3006 Nr. 24786 | Abteilung Rheinland |Landesarchiv NRW, Düsseldorf

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For more on the changes to the provenance of Manet's La Sultane,  see Open Art Data:

Comparing 1961 and May 30 2019 provenances for Manet's La Sultane in the Bührle collection