Theodor Behrens
Theodor E. Behrens (born February 6, 1857 in Hamburg ; † June 10, 1921 there ) was a German banker , art collector and patron . At the beginning of the 20th century he was one of the most important art collectors in Hamburg. His collection consisted mainly of paintings and sculptures by German and French artists of the 19th century. Some of these works are now in the possession of the Hamburger Kunsthalle .
Life
Theodor Behrens' family were originally of Jewish faith and had made a considerable fortune through the cloth trade with England. His great-grandfather Levy Behrens came to Hamburg with his sons from Pyrmont in 1806 . The L. Behrens & Söhne banking house founded here quickly rose to become Hamburg's largest private bank. When Eduard Ludwig Behrens, a grandson of the company's founder, took over the banking business in 1853, the family had converted to Protestantism and was one of the city's richest residents. In 1884 Eduard Ludwig Behrens took his two sons Eduard L. Behrens jun. and Theodor E. Behrens to the management of the bank. The father had started to build up an art collection in the mid-1850s and concentrated on German and French genre painting of the 19th century, as well as landscape paintings from the Barbizon School . This collection includes works by artists such as Narcisso Virgilio Díaz de la Peña , Théodore Rousseau , Charles-François Daubigny , Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot as well as by Ernest Meissonier , Friedrich August von Kaulbach , Franz Defregger (painter) , Ludwig Knaus , Anton Mauve and Giovanni Boldini . In addition to several paintings by Adolph Menzel , he had also compiled a bundle of his drawings and also owned a valuable porcelain collection. When the father Eduard L. Behrens sen. He died in 1895, leaving his eldest son Eduard L. Behrens jun. his collection of paintings, while the second-born son Theodor Behrens received the porcelain collection and drawings from Menzel.
Theodor Behrens married the merchant's daughter Esther O'Swald (1862–1936). Her father, Albrecht Percy O'Swald (1831–1899), was a partner in the company O'Swald & Co , which was active in maritime trade with Africa, and became Consul General of Zanzibar in Hamburg. Esther's uncle was the Senator and Second Mayor of Hamburg William Henry O'Swald . Max Schramm was her brother-in-law. Esther and Theodor Behrens lived in a town house on Alsterglacis No. 16 and had a spacious country house built on Gut Waldenau in Datum near Pinneberg , which is now used as the school building for the school . For his art collection, Theodor Behrens had a gallery building built in 1911 as an extension of the manor house.
With a fortune determined in 1912 of 26 million marks and an annual income of 1.7 million marks, Behrens was able to build up one of the most important art collections in the German Empire, especially after the turn of the century. Thematically, he picked up where his father left off. Although there were also individual works by Corot and Daubigny in his collection, he concentrated primarily on works of French Impressionism . He also acquired important works by Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh and collected paintings by German artists such as Franz von Lenbach and Max Liebermann as well as a number of sculptures . Behrens acquired many of his works of art from the Berlin art dealer Paul Cassirer , who , along with the directors of the Hamburger Kunsthalle , Alfred Lichtwark , and the Kunsthalle Bremen , Gustav Pauli , was one of his advisors. Behrens had been a full member for life of the Kunstverein Bremen since 1909 and showed his collection to the public here in 1911.
Alfred Lichtwark and Gustav Pauli, Lichtwark's successors as director of the Hamburger Kunsthalle since 1914, probably had hopes of receiving works of art from the Behrens collection later as a donation for their museum. During Behrens' lifetime in 1916 he donated his portrait bust, created by Clara Westhoff , wife of Rainer Maria Rilke , to the Kunsthalle. In 1920 he planned to publish a catalog of his collection together with Gustav Pauli, but it was never realized. When Behrens died in 1921, his art collection became the property of his wife, who loaned parts of it to the Kunsthalle. The valuable porcelain collection of almost 200 pieces inherited from the father was given to the Hamburg Museum of Art and Industry as a foundation. In her will from 1923, Esther Behrens initially bequeathed Édouard Manets Nana and Paul Cézannes Am Quai de Bercy in Paris to the Kunsthalle , but changed her intention a year later. Possibly for economic reasons, she sold most of the art collection, with the Hamburger Kunsthalle acquiring some of the works. She also separated from the Waldenau estate at this time. When she died in 1936, the only legacy from the Behrens collection was the sculpture Sandal Binder by Louis Tuaillon, which had been promised as a donation in 1924 . The Hamburg culture and school authorities sued Esther Behrens' last will, in which a previously promised donation of the 27 drawings by Adolph Menzel from the Behrens collection was revoked. In 1937 the family finally agreed with the authorities that 8 drawings would remain in the family's possession and 19 drawings would go to the Hamburger Kunsthalle. Today a portrait of Theodor E. Behrens by the painter Leo von König in the Hamburger Kunsthalle commemorates the important collector.
collection
No documents have been preserved about the creation of Theodor Behrens' art collection, so that the chronological order of the acquisitions cannot be reconstructed. The overlaps between the collections of the father and son Behrens are striking. Both of them acquired works of art from the Barbizon School . These included the paintings Village Street by Camille Corot, Laundresses on the Beach by Charles-François Daubigny, Sheep in the Pasture by Constant Troyon, and Forest Interior and Woman's Head by Díaz de la Peña. Three works by Eugène Delacroix also date from the mid-19th century . In addition to tigers and snakes and lions and alligators , Daniel found himself in the lions' den owned by Behrens. The collector also owned three works by Honoré Daumier , one of the main exponents of French realism . In addition to Don Quixchote et Sancho se redent aux noces de Gamaches and Deux Têtes , Les Pièces à Conviction was found in the Behrens house. The collector owned the works Study on Venus and Psyche and Malle Babbe (copy after Frans Hals) by Gustave Courbet , another painter of realism . In addition, there was a picture by Jules Bastien-Lepage in his study with The Critic Albert Wolff .
The most important works in the collection included works from Impressionism and Late Impressionism . In 1910, for example, Behrens acquired Edouard Manet's Nana , one of the artist's major works, from Cassirer for 150,000 marks . He also owned two late works by the artist, Bords de la Seine à Argenteuil and a version of the country house motif in Rueil . By Pierre-Auguste Renoir found himself with the painting La Grenoullière also a major work in the home Behrens. Other works by Renoir in the collection were peaches and flower harvest . There were also three works by Paul Cézanne : On the Quai de Bercy in Paris , houses at the bend in the street and a self-portrait. In addition, one of the masterpieces of the collection Vincent van Gogh's painting The courtyard of the hospital in Arles . A flower vase picture previously attributed to Van Gogh is now considered a forgery.
Behrens also brought together a few paintings by German artists of the 19th century. He acquired one of the numerous portraits of Otto von Bismarck by the painter Franz von Lenbach and owned by Arnold Böcklin Astolf rides away with Orill's head . Other works by German painters in the collection were Head of a Hunter by Wilhelm Leibl , Female Portrait by Hans von Marées and Salomé by Wilhelm Trübner . In addition to two charcoal drawings, five paintings by Max Liebermann can be identified in the Behrens collection. These include old houses in Scheveningen , toddler school (1st version) , Noordwijk dune , standing girl and vegetable market in Delft . More pictures of the collection were studies head of an old man of Fritz von Uhde , After the Bath by Lovis Corinth and vase and two fruit bowls with apples and grapes the Austrian Carl Schuch .
In addition to paintings, the collector was also interested in some sculptures. He bought a number of small sculptures with animal motifs by August Gaul . In addition to a group of goats , a beaver rat , a lioness , an ostrich and a couple of geese came to the Behrens house. For this purpose he bought the bronze crab fishers and mowers from Constantin Meunier . Behrens assembled three sculptures by Louis Tuaillon in his house: a sandal maker , a plait maker and an amazon . In addition, he owned three works by Georg Kolbe, Die Erwachende , Kauernde and Stehendes Mädchen .
In addition to a few works that have remained in the family's possession, most of the collection items are now in various art museums or private collections. The Hamburger Kunsthalle acquired some of the works shortly after the collector's death. The museum initially acquired Kolbe's sculpture Standing Girl in 1923 . This was followed in 1924 by the purchase of the paintings After the Bath of Corinth, On Quai de Bercy in Paris by Cézanne, Nana by Manet and Malle Babbe by Courbet. In addition, Delacroix bought the lion and alligator in 1925 . In addition to the donation of Tuaillon's sandal binder and the Menzel drawings that were transferred in the 1930s, the Kunsthalle now has a brief overview of the previously considerably larger collection of Theodor Behrens.
literature
- Ulrich Luckhardt, Uwe M. Schneede : Private treasures: about collecting art in Hamburg until 1933 . Christians, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-7672-1383-4 .
Web links
- Doris Blum: The man who followed in his father's footsteps Article in Die Welt of April 11, 2001.
- Information on the history of the Waldenau manor house is available from the student school today
- On the history of the Waldenau manor house (history workshop of the student school)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Hamburg Gender Book Volume 7, p. 288
- ↑ Luckhardt, Schneede: Private Treasures , p. 35
- ↑ a b c d e f g Luckhardt, Schneede: Private Treasures , p. 216.
- ↑ Gisela Hopp: Tschudi's work from the perspective of Alfred Lichtwark in Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern and Peter-Klaus Schuster (eds.): Manet bis van Gogh , p. 281
- ↑ a b Luckhardt, Schneede: Private Treasures , p. 42.
- ↑ Luckhardt, Schneede: Private Treasures , p. 74
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Behrens, Theodor |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Behrens, Theodor E. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German banker, art collector and patron |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 6, 1857 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 10, 1921 |
| Place of death | Hamburg |