Grosz, shedding light on itineraries

The German Expressionist artist George Grosz (1893–1959) was persecuted by the Nazis for his art, while Grosz's art dealer, Alfred Flechtheim (1878-1937), was persecuted by the Nazis for being Jewish*. Both fled Nazi Germany in 1933, Grosz to America Flechtheim to English. Both were plundered.

Some pretty elaborate speculation has been advanced concerning the itineraries of artworks via Grosz and Flechtheim. So how to cut through all the noise? Where is bedrock solid information to be found? 

This post explores what the museums who have Grosz in their collections have to say about where they got it from.

First, a few numbers.

Grosz is thought to have created more than two thousand artworks, including paintings, drawings, sketches and prints. For the first part of his career, he painted in Germany. After 1933 most of his work was done in America. The Beschlagnahmeinventar "Entartete Kunst" published by the Freie Universität Berlin lists 501 works by Grosz.

Where is this art today?

Below are just of few of the museums known to have artworks by Grosz in their collections.

• National Gallery of Art
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Rosenwald Collection
• Museum of Find Arts, Boston
• "degenerate art" collection
• Dallas Museum of Art
• Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum
• Museum of Modern Art
• Bavarian State Painting Collections
• King Baudouin Foundation
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Museum of Fine Arts Ghent (MSK)
• The Jos Knaepen Collection
• Berlinische Galerie
• Neue Nationalgalerie
• Vanderbilt Museum of Art
• John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
• Saint Louis Art Museum
• Whitney Museum of American Art
• Arizona State University Art Museum
• Art Institute of Chicago
• Buffalo AKG Art Museum
• Busch–Reisinger Museum
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
• Georgia Museum of Art
• Hamburger Kunsthalle
• Harvard Art Museums
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
• Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery
• Israel Museum
• Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art
• Minneapolis Institute of Art
• National Museum of Modern Art
• Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
• Smithsonian American Art Museum
• Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
• Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
• Tate
• Yale University Art Gallery

We're going to focus on the art created in early years, until 1932.

The itineraries of many of these artworks are contested.  So we are going to focus on the one piece of information that museums must know: who they acquired the Grosz artworks from. And when.

If this information is not known or not published by the museum, that would be unusual. Such cases will be indicated.

Let's begin with the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, which lists 38 artworks by Grosz on its website, of which all but four were created before 1933. 

Gifts from:

Joseph F. McCrindle [1923-2008]

Evelyn Nef

Francis Biddle, Washington, DC; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1959; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art

Lessing J. Rosenwald

Ruth Cole Kainen

Robert M. Walker

Purchases from:

Ralph Jentsch, Rome; (Gallery Fred Jahn, Munich, by 2008). (Dr, Moeller & Cie. Kunsthandel, Hamburg); NGA purchase

Harry Lunn Gallery, Washington (estate number 1-48-2); purchased 1974 by NGA

private collection, Germany; (sale Ketterer Kunst GmbH & Co KG, 6 December 2013, lot 80); (Galerie Haas AG, Zürich); purchased 2015 by NGA

(Jörg Maass Kunsthandel, Berlin); acquired by the National Gallery of Art

(Carolyn Bullard Fine Prints and Drawings, Dallas, Texas); acquired 2017 by the National Gallery of Art

Many have Nazi-era provenance gaps. For example, a lithograph given by Rosenwald has the following provenance:

"Claude Schaefer [1913-2010], Montevideo, Uruguay; sold 1950 to Lessing J. Rosenwald; [1] gift 1950/1951 to the National Gallery of Art.

[1] In Recollections of a Collector, 1976, p. 56-57, Rosenwald described being approached by a young man in South America who offered to sell his father’s collection of prints that he had brought with him from Germany. Rosenwald gives the year as 1951, but his appointment books confirm that it was actually 1950 - he left for Buenos Aires on 9 February 1950 and returned on 20 March 1950 (Library of Congress, Rosenwald Papers, Box 75). Rosenwald writes that he bought the entire collection of some 1100 prints and drawings, but as they had already been scheduled to be sent to Europe they came to the United States via Antwerp, arriving in the US in late April 1950. Rosenwald decided to keep about a quarter of the collection, destined for the National Gallery of Art, and donate the remainder to other institutions. The inventory log of Alverthorpe indicates that just over 300 works were accessioned there in May of 1950, inventory numbers 50.260-50.530, acquired from Claude Schaefer (Gallery Archives, National Gallery of Art, RG 45A1, Rosenwald Papers, Box 41)."

Another example of a Nazi-era provenance gap, this time in the painting, The Sportsman, created in 1922:

"Harry Lunn Gallery, Washington (estate number 1-48-2); purchased 1974 by NGA."

Let's continue our explorations with the Museum of Modern Art (MoMa) in New York. The MoMa lists 235 works online for Grosz some of which have been the object of claims for restitution in high profile court battles. The MoMa has a separate site for German Expressionist artworks which contains a Credit Line, though this often specifies who gave the funds for the acquisition without saying from whom the artwork was acquired ("Credit Line:Purchase")

Works by George Grosz

View All Related Works [205]

Drawing [22]

Intaglio [3]

Lithography [21]

Reproductive processes [51]

Painting [3]

Where did MoMa get the Grosz artworks from? (Artworks created before 1933 and acquired after or during 1933)

Gifts from

Mr. and Mrs. Leo Lionni

[Willem Beffie, Amsterdam. Purchased from Carel van Lier, April 9, 1938 ?]

Mr. and Mrs. Leo Lionni, Milan and New York. [Purchased from Carel van Lier, April 9, 1938, or gift/bequest from Willem Beffie] – 1954

The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leo Lionni, December 1954

Mr. and Mrs. Walter Bareiss and an anonymous donor (by exchange)

Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw

Mr. and Mrs. Justin K. Thannhauser

A. Conger Goodyear

Ralph E. Shikes

The Joan and Lester Avnet Collection

The John S. Newberry Collection

Samuel A. Berger

Abby Aldrich Rockefeller

Purchases from

Curt Valentin

Herbert Bittner & Co., New York 

Dr. William Landman

(the identity of the seller is frequently not indicated)

Next, we'll look at the Cleveland Museum of Art, which lists 24 artworks by Grosz, of which about half were created before and acquired after 1933.  Several artworks contain no information about the seller or giver.

Gifts from

The Print Club of Cleveland

Gordon K. Mott

Lucia McCurdy McBride [1880-1970]

Purchases from

Eugene Victor Thaw

When provenance is provided, one observes Nazi-era provenance gaps such as for this watercolor: 

" Provenance

?-?

(Galerien Flechtheim, Berlin/Düsseldorf) 1

?-1966

(Eugene Victor Thaw, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)

1966-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Provenance Footnotes

1 according to old label"

The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston lists 11 artworks by Grosz, of which eight were created before and acquired after 1933. Several artworks contain no information about the seller or giver.

Gifts from

W. G. Russell Allen

Lee M. Friedman

Purchases from

Matthiesen

Weyhe Gallery

C.f.: Park-Bernet Sale, Feb. 18, 1970, no. 161

The Detroit Institute of Art lists eleven artworks by Grosz, of which six were created before and acquired after 1933

The provenance for Tod auf der Strasse (between 1920 and 1921) is:

Provenance

"1985-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)"

The provenance for Inflation is:

"Gordon Beer;

1935-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)"

The provenance for Tangle of Lives is:

"Dr. and Mrs. Hanns Schaeffer (New York, New York, USA);

1946-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)"

The provenance for Man and Death (1932) is: 

Sophie Pearlstein (Southfield, Michigan, USA);

2020-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

The provenance for Couple Walking (1930) is:

Estate of George Grosz;

1982, purchase by Mr. and Mrs. Samuel (Sophie) Pearlstein (Southfield, Michigan, USA) from (Sheldon Ross Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan, USA);

2020-present, bequest to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

The provenance for Kein Hahn kräht nach ihnen (Nobody Cares about Them) (1920) is:

"XXXX-1986, Sheldon Ross Gallery (Birmingham, Michigan, USA)

April 10, 1986, purchased by William and Virginia Johnstone (Detroit, Michigan)

Virginia Johnstone (Dearborn, Michigan, USA);

2019-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)"

The above represent only a small sample of artworks by Grosz in American museums.

In Germany, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen has two works by Grosz, one acquired from the Galerie Zwerner and the other from Richard L. Feigen 

Their provenances are:

Der Liebeskranke, 1916:

Galerie Hans Goltz, München

1919 – 1920

Dr. Burg, Köln

1920 – 1921

Dr. Eduard Plietzsch, Berlin

1921 – frühestens 1928, spätestens 1933

George Grosz, Berlin/New York

frühestens 1928, spätestens 1933 – 1959

Richard L. Feigen, Chicago

frühestens 1954, spätestens 1959 – 1961

Privatsammlung, New York

1961 – 1974

Richard L. Feigen, New York

1974 – 1979

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

seit 1979

Konstruktion (ohne Titel), 1920:

George Grosz, Berlin/New York

1920 – ?

Privatsammlung, Palisades, New York

? – 1961

Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago

1961 – 1964

E.V. Thaw & Co., New York

1964 – 1965

Galerie Zwirner, Köln

1965

Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf

seit 1965