Florine Langweil

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Acquired a bronze horse from Florentine Langweil
Typical Japanese silk embroidery from the Henri Rivière collection

Florine Langweil , née Ebstein (born September 10, 1861 in Wintzenheim ; died 1958 in Paris ), was a French art dealer and collector.

biography

Florine Ebstein came from a poor Jewish host family. After the death of her parents in 1881, she went to Paris and lived there first with a cousin who ran an Alsatian specialty shop. In Paris she also met her husband Charles Langweil, 25 years her senior, who was an antique dealer and came from Bohemia . She married him in 1885 and had two daughters, Berthe and Lily. Although he had promised her a prosperous life, he left his family in 1893.

Thereupon she switched the assortment of the badly running antique shop to Far Eastern art from China and Japan. The Japonismus at that time was on his zenith . The sensation and success were great and famous personalities were among their customers. Here she also met Henri Rivière , who was to become a good friend of the family.

The business took her to the provinces, but also to London and she often entrusted her daughters to a governess. After 10 years, in 1903, she could afford to buy and open a shop at an upscale address. Arsène Alexandre , General Inspector of the French Museums, wrote at the opening: It doesn't seem like a shop at all, but like a house made of 1000 and one nights, with a magical and cosmopolitan hostess. Florentine Langweil was also valued as an expert on Far Eastern art and appeared with her expertise in several publications.

Another 10 years later, namely in 1913 - Florine Langweil was meanwhile very wealthy - she withdrew from the business. Again Arsène Alexandre headlined on the first page of Figaro: End of an artistic dream . Boring bought a former hotel in which she could store her art collection and was to live there until the end of her life , only interrupted by World War II .

Florine Langweil was still in favor of her old homeland, just as she maintained contact with the brothers who were left behind. In 1914 she donated four boxes of Far Eastern art objects to the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar . However, the First World War prevented further donations to Colmar. Instead, she founded an aid organization for evacuees. She also took war wounded into her home for convalescence and created 28 beds. In 1916, with the same purpose, she organized an exhibition in which Parisian artists were to approach Far Eastern art. A remarkable hall was decorated entirely with floral motifs by Jacques-Émile Blanche .

After the war, in 1920, she bequeathed four works by Jacques-Émile Blanche, Henri Rivière, Léon Belly and Ary Scheffer to the Colmar Museum . In 1921 she was made a Knight of the Legion of Honor for her commitment . Because the Unterlinden Museum had received so many gifts, a Langweil Hall was set up in 1923. In 1929, the constantly growing collection of Jean-Jacques Waltz was cataloged.

In 1923, together with Jean-Jacques Waltz, she founded the prix de francais en Alsace for primary schools in which the French language should be promoted. Over 1,700 Alsatian schools applied for this award, which was awarded until the outbreak of war . Finally, in 1935, Langweil was promoted to officer of the Legion of Honor.

At the beginning of World War II, Langweil fled to Toulouse with her daughter and son-in-law André Noufflard . She then bought a country estate in the Dordogne , where Henry Rivière was also to survive the war years. As a Jew, she had to hide from the SS there . During this time, a large part of your collection was confiscated by German troops and it was not until 1949 that the Commision de récupération artistique returned most of it.

With the exception of a few pieces that went to the Museum Unterlinden, Langweil's estate was auctioned at the Hôtel Drouot auction house.

The Langweil collection is exhibited from time to time, the last time in 2014, in the Unterlinden in Colmar. A street in Wintzenheim is named after her.

literature

  • Mémoire Colmarienn, le recueil: Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Colmar, year 2005–2006, pp. 188–191
  • Société d´Histoire de Wintzenheim, Annuaire 2006, pp. 29-40

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Catalog des objets d'art et de curiosité de la Chine et du Japon, ... , digitized , accessed on December 4, 2017
  2. ↑ Catalog des gardes de saber, sabres, kozukas, fers de flèche, inros, ... , digitized version , accessed on December 4, 2017
  3. ↑ Revue des établissements de bienfaisance , November-December 1920 edition, p. 71 ff., Digitized , accessed on December 6, 2017
  4. ↑ Le Journal , edition of July 15, 1934, digitized version , accessed on December 6, 2017
  5. ^ Paris-soir , edition of July 19, 1939, digitized version , accessed on December 6, 2017
  6. ↑ Japan in Unterlinden: The Florine Langweil Collection: Musée Unterlinden 2014 , accessed on December 7, 2017
  7. ↑ Mémoire Colmarienn, le recueil: Société d'histoire et d'archéologie de Colmar, digitized , accessed on December 7, 2017
  8. ^ Société d´Histoire de Wintzenheim, Annuaire 2006, digitized version , accessed on December 7, 2017
personal data
SURNAME Boring, Florine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ebstein, Florine (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French art dealer
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Wintzenheim
DATE OF DEATH 1958
Place of death Paris