Alfred Oppenheim (painter)

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Alfred Nathaniel Oppenheim (born July 7, 1873 in Frankfurt am Main ; died July 14, 1953 London ) was a German artist.

Life

Alfred Nathaniel Oppenheim was the grandson of the painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim . The grandfather portrayed the three-year-old grandson in 1876 with Struwwelpeter in hand.

From 1890 he studied at the Frankfurt Städelschule and from 1894 at the Academy in Munich . He then went to Paris and returned to Frankfurt am Main in 1900. In addition to his work as a painter, he also worked as a jewelry maker and became a specialist in the field of East Asian art . From 1919 Oppenheimer worked on the catalogs of the art auction house Hugo Helbing .

Alfred Oppenheim lived in the house on the right, at Eppsteiner Strasse 45

In 1924 he published the memoirs of his grandfather Moritz Oppenheim. His own art collection included 19th century French and Asian art. Together with Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild and Martin Flersheim, he left the Kunstgewerbeverein in 1935. In 1939 he emigrated to London. The Aryanization of his collection was carried out in 1943 by Ernst Holzinger , the director of the Städel Museum at the time, who did not auction it off but tried to incorporate it into the municipal property. Among them was the portrait of the upset Peter . After the collection was returned, Oppenheim donated two of his own works to the Städel.

In 2009, Deutsche Post issued a stamp with Oppenheim's poster for the International Aviation Exhibition in Frankfurt 1909 (ILA). The Museum of World Cultures showed showcases of its former art collection in 2018.

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Although Alfred Oppenheim was successful as an artist, for example as a portraitist of the Frankfurt upper class, he pursued other activities. Trained as a jewelry designer in Paris, he remained true to the strongly floral French Art Nouveau , which was an exception in Germany at the time.

As an artist, French traits can also be found in his work, although he is more likely to be assigned to German Impressionism . In addition to portraits of the upper middle class, he devoted himself in particular to his home region around Frankfurt. Heuberger and Merk see Oppenheim as "in terms of subject and painterly style entirely in the modern artistic movements".

Works (selection)

  • Fire salamander , shown at the German Art Exhibition, Dresden 1899
  • Cycle: Images from St. Cloud and Versailles
  • St. Nikolas Tower in Turnes, 1902
  • Portrait of Ludwig Rosenmeyer , 1908, Jewish Museum Frankfurt
  • Portrait of Dr. Z. , 1908
  • Portrait Martha Flersheim (red chalk drawing)
  • Alte Mainbrücke , 1909, oil / canvas, 46 × 66.5 cm, Frankfurt Historical Museum
  • Motif near Ginnheim
  • Mammolshain Valley
  • Poster for the International Aviation Exhibition in Frankfurt 1909, reissued in 2009 as a postage stamp by Deutsche Post .
  • Poster for the Great Art Exhibition in Cologne, competition entry 3rd prize
  • Portrait of the painter Alfred Nathaniel Oppenheim (1873–1953) in old German costume. Inv. No. SG 1 1 34. Oil on canvas on cardboard, 38.9 × 30.3 cm, Städelmuseum Frankfurt
  • Works from the possession of Fritz Hallgarten , including: Farm in Franconia and gardening .

Exhibitions

The Alfred Oppenheim Collection

Oppenheim continued the art collection of his father Daniel Guido Oppenheim, in particular East Asian and French art of the 19th century, which only a few industrialists owned at the time, but for him the research of the objects was in the foreground, he was also consulted as an expert.

After he emigrated to London, his collection was put into storage. This also included works by the grandfather. Half a year before the Eleventh Ordinance on the Reich Citizenship Act , Oppenheim's property, which was stored with a forwarding agency, was confiscated by the Gestapo in 1941 . In 1943, this was viewed by the director of the Städel, Ernst Holzinger, and it was the most important collection that he was confronted with as an expert. He decided against dismantling and selling it and tried to bring it as a whole into the possession of the city. Whether this was done with the intention of saving the collection is disputed; it is generally assumed that it was a "robbery". Oppenheim got the collection back after 1945, he also thanked us in writing about the handling.

The heirs of Alfred Oppenheim sold the remaining parts of the estate to the Israel Museum in Jerusalem in 1958 . The funds were raised by the British Friends of the Art Museums of Israel .

literature

  • Oppenheim, Alfred Nathaniel , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 287
  • Oppenheim, Alfred Nathaniel , in: Salomon Wininger : Great Jewish National Biography . Volume 4. Chernivtsi, 1930, p. 566

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrike von Hase-Schmundt: Jewelery in Germany and Austria, 1895-1914: Symbolism, Art Nouveau, Neohistorismus. Prestel, 1977, p. 85.
  2. ^ Georg Heuberger, Anton Merk: Jewish identity in 19th century art. P. 305.
  3. ↑ Andreas Hansert, lecture: http://www.andreas-hansert.de/doku/Holzinger-Vortrag06.07.2009.pdf
  4. ↑ Andreas Hansert: On the Fate of collection Alfred Oppenheim during and after the Nazi era . In: Georg Heuberger, Anton Merk: Moritz Daniel Oppenheim. The discovery of Jewish self-awareness in art . Jewish Museum Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt am Main 1999
  5. ^ Anton Merk: The artistic work. In: Ruth Dröse, Frank Eisermann, Monica Kingreen, Anton Merk: The cycle “Pictures from the old Jewish family life” and his painter Moritz Daniel Oppenheim. CoCon-Verlag, Hanau 1996, p. 31.
personal data
SURNAME Oppenheim, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oppenheim, Alfred Nathaniel (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Artist and art collector
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH July 14, 1953
Place of death London