Foxes (Franz Marc)

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Foxes (Franz Marc)
foxes
Franz Marc , 1913
Oil on canvas
79.5×66cm
private property
Template: Infobox painting/maintenance/museum

Foxes is a Cubist-style painting by the German Expressionist painter Franz Marc (1880–1916) from 1913. It depicts two red foxes and from 1962 was part of the inventory of the Museum Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf . At the end of April 2021, the city of Düsseldorf announced that it would restitute the painting to the heirs of the former Jewish owner, Kurt Grawi . The handover took place in January 2022.

description

Marc's foxes are executed in oil on canvas and are 79.5 × 66 cm in size. It had the inventory number 0.1962.5490 in the Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast. The foxes were created in 1913 and clearly show the influence of Robert Delaunay , whom Marc visited in Paris in 1912 along with his friend August Macke . The colorful, Orphic Cubism of Delaunay stimulated Marc, as did the rhythmic fragmentation of the Italian Futurists . The influences ensured a further development of Marc's expressionist style, which is clearly recognizable by his preferred motif of one or more foxes. Compared to his 1911 painting Blue Fox , the abstraction in the 1913 painting is more advanced. Two red foxes only become apparent to the viewer at second glance: in the foreground, one animal with a bowed head towers, behind it another, somewhat hidden, with a hanging tail. Horizontal, diagonal and vertical break through each other in the sense of cubism; the geometric structures result in a dynamic interplay. The few traces that are still objective also tend towards abstract form.

Provenance and exhibitions

The painting was first shown publicly in 1913 in the Hamburg gallery Bock. After the owner of the Der Sturm gallery , Herwarth Walden , and other private owners, it was owned by the Jewish Berlin merchant and art collector Kurt Grawi from 1928. From November 1938 he was imprisoned for several weeks in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , had to leave Germany penniless in 1939 and went into exile in Chile. It is not known whether Grawi himself sold the painting before fleeing and, if so, under what circumstances. In 1940 it was in American private ownership in New York . How it got there is again unknown. It was resold via the Karl Kidney Village gallery . After World War II it was acquired by the Bern art dealership Klipstein & Kornfeld . The entrepreneur Helmut Horten bought it from them in 1961 and donated it to the Düsseldorf Museum Kunstpalast in 1962. It was one of the most famous works there. Its value is estimated at up to 14 million euros.

return procedure

In 2018, the heirs of Kurt Grawis made a restitution claim , which the City Council of Düsseldorf unanimously approved in a closed session in April 2021. On July 9, 2021, criminal charges were filed against the responsible city officials who recommended the return of the foxes , as well as the city council members who approved the decision, to prevent the return. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , the former presiding judge at the Berlin Administrative Court, Friedrich Kiechle, had filed the complaint. In September 2021, Lord Mayor Stephan Keller ordered the immediate return of the picture to Kurt Grawi's heirs. The handover took place in January 2022.

web links

Commons : The Foxes  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

itemizations

  1. ↑ Franz Marc. The Foxes (1913) . Statement by the state capital of Düsseldorf on the request by the community of heirs after Kurt Grawi for the painting Foxes (1913) by Franz Marc. Düsseldorf n.d. [2021], cover page, online version .
  2. ↑ Franz Marc. The Foxes (1913) . Statement by the state capital of Düsseldorf on the request by the community of heirs after Kurt Grawi for the painting Foxes (1913) by Franz Marc. Düsseldorf n.d. [2021], p. 3, online version .
  3. ↑ Franz Marc , Lenbachhaus Munich (accessed January 14, 2022).
  4. ↑ a b Franz Marc painting: scramble for "foxes" . In: Mirror Online . 9 February 2018 ( spiegel.de [accessed 9 February 2018]).
  5. ↑ a b Debate on looted art: tug of war over Franz Marc painting . In: Cologne Review . 9 February 2018 ( rundschau-online.de [accessed 9 February 2018]).
  6. ↑ German Lost Art Foundation: Provenance research by Franz Marc, Füchse, 1913. Retrieved July 9, 2021 .
  7. ↑ Return of cultural property: Düsseldorf returns valuable Franz Marc painting. In: spiegel.de . 29 April 2021, retrieved 29 April 2021 .
  8. ↑ The "Foxes" remain in Düsseldorf for the time being. In: faz.net . 9 July 2021, retrieved 14 January 2022 .
  9. ↑ Patrick Bahners: Düsseldorf restitution case: Franz Marc's "Foxes" are handed over immediately. In: faz.net. 22 September 2021, retrieved 14 January 2022 .
  10. ↑ Franz Marc painting "The Foxes" back with the heirs. In: sueddeutsche.de . January 13, 2022, retrieved January 14, 2022 .