Selected Works

The pastel is closely linked to the fate of interrelated families, whose paths can be traced across Germany, the Netherlands, and North America: the Tannenbaum, Herrmann, Wachenheim, and Landmann families. Through the Mannheim art dealer Herbert Tannenbaum (1892–1958), the pastel came into the possession of Robert Karl Herrmann (1896–1945) around 1921, who also lived in Mannheim. Herrmann settled in The Hague in 1924 and acquired Dutch citizenship in 1935. Herbert Tannenbaum fled to Amsterdam in 1937. Around 1938/1940, the pastel appears to have returned to Tannenbaum's possession from Robert Herrmann. Tannenbaum likely took it with him when he emigrated to the United States in 1946. In March 1944, Robert Herrmann and his wife Gertrud Herrmann-Katz (1901–1945) were deported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they were murdered in early 1945. After their deaths, Gertrud Herrmann’s uncle, Otto Wachenheim (1886–1969), took responsibility for their four children. In 1948, the pastel passed into the possession of Wilhelm Landmann (1891–1987). His wife Julie (née Herbst, 1897–2001) was Otto Wachenheim’s sister-in-law. Furthermore, Wilhelm Landmann and Herbert Tannenbaum were friends from their student days in Mannheim. Thus, the pastel remained in a circle of art-loving, connected families from Mannheim for many decades.