Eduard Georg Simon

Eduard Georg Simon (born April 7, 1864 in Berlin ; † August 3, 1929 there ) was a major German industrialist , art collector and patron .

Life

Eduard Simon was a son of the secret commercial councilor Louis Simon and cousin of the Berlin art collector and patron James Simon . Simon attended the grammar school in the gray monastery and, after successfully completing school, entered his father's textile business, where he completed an apprenticeship as a textile trader. In order to continue his education, he then traveled to the USA , where he dealt with the production conditions there in various companies.

After his return to Berlin in 1888, he became a partner in the prosperous cotton and linen factory of the Brothers Simon, which was run jointly by his father and his uncle Isaac and which he later ran with his cousin James. In this position, he quickly achieved prosperity and joined the Society of Friends in 1895 . By 1913 he had an estimated fortune of 25 million marks and an annual income of 1.7 million marks. In the mid-1890s, Simon obtained a doctorate in law from the University of Leipzig .

Eduard Simon's son Theodor Simon also worked in the family business of the Gebrüder Simon. His only daughter Charlotte married the private banker Robert Oppenheim (1882–1956), the son of the private banker Hugo Oppenheim (1847–1921) and brother-in-law of the painter Josef Block (1863–1943).

In view of the difficult development of the business situation of the Simon brothers company, Eduard Simon committed suicide in August 1929.

Art collector and patron

Simon started building up his own art collection relatively late. The reason for this was less a hobby than a pronounced need for representation. When he decided in 1902 to build a magnificent city villa at Viktoriastraße 7 , he wanted to furnish it with important European works of art, in keeping with the taste of the time. One of his first steps as a future art collector was to join the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museums-Verein in the same year . This was later followed by memberships in the German Association for Art Studies , in which he temporarily held the office of treasurer, in the Association of Friends of Ancient Art and in the German Orient Society . In 1903, after the architect Alfred Messel had presented him with the construction plans for the new villa, he acquired the first works of art, making sure that they also fit into the spatial ambience. For example, he acquired a ceiling painting especially for the dining room and six grisaille paintings from Giovanni Battista Tiepolo , which depicted The Glorification of the Porto Family from Vicenza and which Messel incorporated directly into his building plans. Especially to equip the salon, he bought a complete Venetian cabinet of mirrors in the Rococo style, which he replaced with French furniture from the time of Louis XV. and the portrait of an English lady by Peter Lely . The focus of the Eduard Simon collection was on European Renaissance painting with many works from the Italian Renaissance and French, Italian and English paintings of the 18th century. In addition, furniture from various eras, craft objects, small bronzes and original pieces of equipment such as wall, ceiling and floor elements of foreign origin were added. He was advised on his purchases mainly from Wilhelm von Bode , with whom he had a loose friendship. The most important pieces in the Eduard Simon collection included a Maria with the child by Sandro Botticelli , the portrait of a man by Agnolo Bronzino , the portrait of a Florentine woman by Giuliano Bugiardini , a Maria with the child by Lorenzo Ghiberti , and a Maria with the child by Andrea Riccio and the Portrait of Mrs. Long by George Romney .

As a thank you for Bode's commitment to building up and presenting the collection, Simon repeatedly donated works of art to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin , which particularly benefited the Gemäldegalerie , the sculpture collection , the Kupferstichkabinett , the Antikensammlung and the Islamisches Museum . This makes him one of the most important patrons in the history of the Berlin State Museums to this day.

literature

• Sven Kuhrau: The art collector in the empire. Art and representation in Berlin's private collector culture. Kiel 2005.
• Olaf Matthes (ed.), Dandy - extra - cook. The memoirs of Theodor Simon (1897–1965), Berlin 2017 (therein detailed descriptions of Eduard Simon).