Swamp legend

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Swamp legend (Paul Klee)
Swamp legend
Paul Klee , 1919
Oil on cardboard
47 × 41 cm
Municipal gallery in the Lenbachhaus

Swamp Legend is the title of a 1919 created small oil picture by Paul Klee . It has been owned by the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich since 1982 , but its ownership was controversial due to its provenance . The painting was one of the works ostracized by the National Socialists as " degenerate art " and was confiscated in the Provincial Museum in Hanover in 1937. However, it was not owned by the museum, but was on loan from the art historian Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers . In July 2017 it became known that the heirs had reached an agreement with the city of Munich.

description

The painting is placed in the series of cosmic landscapes created by the artist in large numbers between 1917 and 1919 , in which a symbolic conception of nature is expressed. In abstract color spaces, dominated by sulphurous yellow and contrasted with violet, the objects are arranged in a naive way. In the dreamlike scenery, the human figure itself becomes a piece of nature:

“Before (even as a child), the landscape was very clear to me. A scene for moods of the soul. Now dangerous moments begin when nature tries to swallow me, then I am nothing at all, but I have peace. "

- Paul Klee : Diaries

Provenance

Shortly after its completion, the painting was bought by Paul Küppers, director of the Hannoversche Künstlerverein , and his wife Sophie, later Lissitzky-Küppers, directly from the artist's studio in Suresnes Castle , Munich . In 1926 Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers loaned the painting to the Provincial Museum in Hanover , along with 15 other modern works . On July 5, 1937, it was confiscated by the National Socialist Art Commission as part of the “Degenerate Art” campaign. From July 19, 1937, it was presented in the humiliating exhibition of the same name on the so-called “Dada wall”.

Marsh legend on the Dada wall.jpg

In 1941 the art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt bought the picture from the German Reich for 500 Swiss Francs . In 1962 it was auctioned by the Lempertz auction house in Cologne , despite a reference to its origin and the assumption that it was still owned by Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers, and acquired by the Swiss collector Ernst Beyeler . He then sold it to the Rosengart Gallery in Lucerne , where it was located from 1973 to 1982. Then it was acquired for 700,000 DM by the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation and the City of Munich, who loaned it to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus .

Jen Lissitzky, the son of Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers, filed a lawsuit in 1992 for the picture to be handed over to the Munich Regional Court . This lawsuit was dismissed with reference to the statute of limitations . The principles of lifting the statute of limitations according to the Washington Declaration , to which the public museums in Germany have committed, do not apply in this case, as the Lenbachhaus is a private foundation. At the end of March 2012, the heirs again filed a lawsuit against the city of Munich for the surrender of the picture, on the grounds that there were new documents as evidence.

In July 2017 it became known that the heirs had reached an agreement with the city of Munich. Accordingly, compensation should be paid to the heirs and the painting should remain in the Lenbachhaus.

See also

literature

  • Melissa Müller: Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers (1891–1978) Hanover / Munich . In: Melissa Müller, Monika Tatzkow: Lost Pictures, Lost Lives. Jewish collectors and what became of their works of art. Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-938045-30-5 , pp. 98ff.
  • Ingeborg Prior: The stolen pictures. The adventurous story of Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers and her art collection . Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2002, ISBN 3-462-03084-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ quoted from: Werner Hofmann: Paul Klee. 50 works from 50 years , published by the Hamburger Kunsthalle on the occasion of the exhibition of the same name, Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1990, p. 80
  2. ^ Research center "Degenerate Art", FU Berlin: Paul Klee: Sumpflegende. In: emuseum.campus.fu-berlin.de. Retrieved February 23, 2020 .
  3. ^ Melissa Müller: Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers (1891–1978) Hanover / Munich ; Page 98 ff.
  4. ^ Gunnar Schnabel, Monika Tatzkow: Nazi Looted Art. Handbook of Art Restitution Worldwide . Proprietas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-00-019368-2 , p. 289
  5. ^ Restitution dispute: Klee's "Swamp legend". Steps in the right direction faz.net from May 6, 2013 , accessed on November 7, 2013
  6. ↑ Bernhard Schulz: Final chapter of a neverending story. In: www.tagesspiegel.de. July 27, 2017, accessed February 22, 2020 .