Rudolf Levy

Rudolf Levy; Self-Portrait (1943)

Rudolf Levy (* 15. July 1875 in Stettin , † January 1944 in Italy) was a German painter of Expressionism .

Life

Levy came from an Orthodox Jewish family who opposed his desire to become an artist. The family moves from Stettin to Gdansk, where Rudolf spent his childhood and youth. After attending grammar school, he first learned from 1890 to 1892 what his father considered to be an art carpenter. His artistic training began in 1895 at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe (then Karlsruhe School of Applied Arts).

In 1897 he went to Munich with Hans Purrmann to become a painter. At the Academy of Fine Arts Levy was accepted into Nikolaus Gysis ' nature class in 1899 , then studied in Heinrich Knirr's private painting school , where u. a. Paul Klee , Eugen von Kahler , Hermann Haller and Georges Kars were his classmates. Levy was the focus of the Sturmfackel artists' association , which met in the Schwabinger Café Stefanie; Alfred Kubin , Albert Weisgerber, Walter Bondy, Alexander von Salzmann, Gino von Finetti, Ernst Stern a. a. belonged to this. With Albert Weisgerber he was a. a. close friends. Levy's tragedy Sappho was performed around 1900 in the studio of the painter Ernst Stern . In 1901/02 Levy then studied outdoor painting with Heinrich von Zügel .

Rudolf Levy, pen drawing by Rudolf Großmann , (1906)

In the autumn of 1903 he went to Paris and, with Hans Purrmann and Walter Bondy, founded the group of German-speaking artists who had their headquarters in the “ Café du Dôme ”. In 1905 he was represented with his painting at the “ Third Paris Autumn Salon ” in the Grand Palais and in 1906 at the “Fourth Paris Autumn Salon” with the painting “Sitting female nude with a fan”. From 1907 Levy studied painting in the then newly founded student studio with Matisse .

In the years 1910 to 1913 Levy made trips to Tunis and regularly to southern France, with the towns of Cassis , L'Estaque and Sanary-sur-Mer , which were reflected in a more abstract style in his painting.

In 1912 Levy took part in the Cologne Sonderbund exhibition with two works . His participation in exhibitions was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War. Levy volunteered and fought as a German soldier in France, Artois and Flanders and received the Iron Cross in 1915 .

In 1919 the artist returned to Germany and took part in the first exhibition of the group Das Junge Rheinland in Düsseldorf. In the circle around the gallery owner Alfred Flechtheim , who had reopened his Düsseldorf gallery in 1919, Levy met many friends from the Parisian years before 1914. The artist mainly painted still lifes, as well as portraits and landscapes. On December 29, 1919, he married the photographer and actress Eugenie Schindler (1894–1953), artist name Genia Morelli, in Munich.

After staying in various cities, he finally settled in Berlin in 1921 . Here in 1922 the gallery owner Flechtheim organized Rudolf Levy's first solo exhibition. Landscapes, still lifes and portraits of the artist were shown and Flechtheim made him known to a wider audience for the first time. German art critics expressed praise and recognition. In the 1920s he achieved increasing success and participated in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad.

From 1924 to 1926 Levy stayed again in Paris, where he became an important representative for Flechtheim, putting him in touch with artists and exhibitors in Paris. During his summer stays in Sanary-sur-Mer, Levy painted numerous landscapes that were shown at Flechtheim in Berlin and Düsseldorf. He celebrated his 50th birthday on July 15, 1925 in the Flechtheim gallery in Düsseldorf. Friends and painters from all over the years took part, including Ernst Aufseeser , Walter Cohen , Ferdinand Carl Cürten , Werner Heuser , Ari Walter Kampf (1894–1955), Wilhelm Kreis , Heinrich Nauen, the brothers Alfred and Otto Sohn-Rethel , and Max Ferdinand Vautier (* 1900), Alex Vömel , Otto von Wätjen , Fritz Westendorp and Mariele Westendorp (1899–1960).

In 1927 Levy returned to Berlin. His circle of friends included Erika and Klaus Mann , Gustaf Gründgens , Erik Charell , Salomo Friedlaender , Renée Sintenis , Joachim Ringelnatz and Ernst Stern . In 1928 Levy became a board member and jury member of the Berlin Secession together with Hans Purrmann, Charlotte Berend-Corinth , George Grosz and Max Pechstein and was involved until he emigrated in 1933. Levy founded in 1929, probably based on the Matisse student studio, a private painting school on Kurfürstendamm. In the last few years in Berlin, Levy mainly painted portraits and still lifes.

emigration

Due to his Jewish origins, Rudolf Levy left Germany on April 1, 1933 and traveled to the Italian Riviera, to Rapallo, where his friend and student Bob Gesinus-Visser owned a house, the "Villa Olimpo". Levy lived there with Oskar Kokoschka for a while before moving to Paris and from there to Mallorca in 1935 . In Cala Rajada he met other emigrants such as Franz Blei , Heinrich Maria Davringhausen , Arthur Segal and Karl Otten . When the Spanish Civil War broke out , Levy left the island in August 1936 and boarded a ship to New York , where his friend Erik Charell was waiting for him. Despite having a residence permit until October 1937, Levy did not want to stay in the USA , returned to Europe in May 1937 and first traveled to Zaton (Dubrovnik) in Croatia and then to Ischia in 1938 . There he stayed in the artist colony with Karli Sohn-Rethel , Kurt Craemer (1912–1961), Werner Gilles , Max Peiffer Watenphul and Eduard Bargheer , with whom he became friends. Levy lived off the occasional sale of paintings and received financial support from his family, including his wife Genia, who was now divorced from him.

He experienced the outbreak of war in 1939 with Karli Sohn-Rethel and Kurt Craemer on the island of Procida . In the autumn of 1939 his residence permit on Ischia was not extended and Levy had to leave Italy on November 25, 1939. Erik Charell, already in the USA, tries to get Levy a visa. All attempts, including alternatives to Chile or Brazil, failed and failed. Apparently for financial reasons: the trip cost $ 500, $ 500 had to be deposited for the guarantee.

In December 1940 Levy moved to Florence , where his friends Heinz Battke and Kurt Craemer were waiting for him. He found shelter in Sister Bandini's boarding house, which was located in Palazzo Guadagni on Piazza Santo Spirito. In Caffè Giubbe Rosse in Piazza della Repubblica, artists and emigrants met. Levy began to paint again and his old work was created, which consisted mainly of still lifes, but also of portraiture. Levy was able to earn part of his livelihood by selling paintings; Florentine collectors are interested in his paintings.

In May 1943 Levy withdrew with Purrmann and Friedrich Kriegbaum to Saltino-Vallombrosa near Florence because of the danger of war . When Florence was occupied by the German Reich on September 11, 1943 , and the German anti-Jewish laws thus became valid in the occupied territories, Levy was not safe from discovery and deportation in Italy either. He was warned by friends and was initially able to go into hiding.

In December 1943, SS men disguised as an art dealer deceived him under the pretext that they wanted to buy his paintings and lured him into a trap. Levy unsuspectingly returned to his old apartment in the Pensione Bandini, where he was arrested by Gestapo officials on December 12, 1943 and taken to Le Murate prison in Florence . When a transport train of Jewish prisoners went to Auschwitz from Florence via Carpi near Modena and Milan on January 30, 1944 , Rudolf Levy with the number 297 was on the list. He probably died on the transport in January 1944, as there are many indications that he no longer arrived alive in Auschwitz on February 6, 1944 .

Works by Rudolf Levy were confiscated by the National Socialists in 1937 during the “ Degenerate Art ” campaign in German museums and have so far been lost or destroyed.

In Germany, his early work is only preserved in a few public collections, such as the Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern , the Landesmuseum Mainz , the Art Museum Gelsenkirchen and the Lehmbruck Museum in Duisburg; Works from the time in Florence occasionally appear in the art trade.

Rudolf Levy was a member of the German Association of Artists .

family

Rudolf Levy was born on July 15 as the first child of the married couple Julius and Therese Levy in Stettin . His siblings were Paul Levy (1876–1943), who became a railway engineer and was murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp , and Käthe Levy (1879–1954), who emigrated to Tel Aviv .

literature

• Kurt Craemer: My Panopticon . Hamburg 1965, pp. 121ff., 227ff. u.ö.
• Susanne Thesing:  Levy, Rudolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 14, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-428-00195-8 , p. 405 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Susanne Thesing, Manfred Rothenberger, Heinz Neidel: Rudolf Levy (1875–1944). Life and work. Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nuremberg 1990 ISBN 3-922531-89-X
• Rudolf Levy. Oil paintings . Catalog of the commemorative exhibition from February 20 to March 26, 1959 in the Frankfurt Art Cabinet.
• Friedrich Ahlers-Hestermann: Art and Artists . The German group of artists of the Café du Dôme in Paris, Jg.XVI, Berlin 1918, pp. 369–404
• Karl Scheffler: Rudolf Levy . In: Kunst und Künstler: illustrated monthly for fine arts and applied arts , 20.1922.

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Levy  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Rudolf Levy in the catalog of the German National Library
• Catalog raisonné
• Biography and photo
• http://www.artfacts.net/index.php/pageType/artistInfo/artist/6516
• Alfred Flechtheim and Rudolf Levy

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Figure "Sitting female nude with a fan"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Klaus and Erika Mann even declared Levy to be the “discoverer” of the port town of Sanary-sur-Mer, which was increasingly popular with German artists at the time, in their Riviera “travel guide” in 1931. See Erika Mann, Klaus Mann: The Book of the Riviera . Reprint of the original edition by Piper-Verlag from 1931. Reinbek near Hamburg: Rowohlt 2002. p. 39.
3. ↑ International art exhibition of the Sonderbund Westdeutscher Kunstfreunde und Künstler zu Cöln, 1912
4. ^ German biography: Genia Morelli
5. ↑ The Cross Section, November 1926, picture above: The painters Arnthal, Detaille, Rudolf Levy, Gesinus Visier and Jules Pascin with their ladies, Sanary-sur-Mer; Bottom picture: Rudolf Levy, Sanary abstract
6. ↑ Magnus P. Gerdsen Gallery, Hamburg. Biography Eduard Bargheer: 1939 moved to Italy (Ischia and Florence) friendship with Rudolf Levy , accessed May 7, 2015
7. ↑ Hans Purrmann, Florence 1935-1943
8. ↑ Timeline: Italy 1938 - 1945 ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
9. ↑ "Le Murate" originally built as a monastery in the 14th century, then converted into a men's prison in Florence in 1808. During the Second World War, opponents of the fascist regime were cruelly tortured there.
10. ↑ Lost works Rudolf Levy: Lost works, confiscated as degenerate and / or lost ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ kuenstlerbund.de: Full members of the Deutscher Künstlerbund since it was founded in 1903 / Levy, Rudolf ( Memento of the original from November 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on October 22, 2015)