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This picture shows the following artwork: Adolph Menzel. Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, Prussian lieutenant-general (study of a Frederician officer). 1851.

Exhibition

Ausstellung von Werken Adolph von Menzel. Berlin, Kgl. National-Galerie, 1905, cat. no. 525 / Menzel – der Beobachter. Hamburg, Hamburg Kunsthalle, 1982, cat. no. 69, ill. p. 126 („Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, preußischer Generallieutenant“) / Prints and Drawings by Adolph Menzel. A selection from the collections of the museums of West Berlin. Cambridge, The Fitzwilliam Museum, 1984, cat. no. 39, ill

Literature and illustration

Lionel von Donop: Katalog der Handzeichnungen, Aquarelle und Oelstudien in der Königl. National-Galerie. Berlin, Ernst Siegfried Mittler und Sohn, 1902, no. 175 („Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, preussischer Generallieutenant. Die Schärpe bindend") / auction 93: Zeichnungen und Graphiken des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, Paul Graupe, Antiquariat, 16. 12.1929, cat. no. 31 („Hans Karl von Winterfeld, friderizianischer Generalleutnant, sich eine Schärpe umbindend“) / auction: painting neuerer master. Menzel-collection L.-Wrocław. Berlin, Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, 23.2.1932, cat. no. 174 („Hans Karl von Winterfeld“) / auction 189: Bücher des 15.–20. Jahrh., alte and moderne Grafik, Handzeichnungen, collection Schniewind, Neviges und Beiträge aus anderem Besitz, Kunstgewerbe. Berlin, Max Perl, Buch- und Kunstantiquariat, 27.–29.5.1935, cat. no. 1573 („Generalleutnant v. Winterfeld, die Schärpe bindend“) / Lucius Grisebach (ed.): Adolph Menzel. Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik und illustrierte Bücher im Bestandskatalog der Nationalgalerie, des Kupferstichkabinetts und der Kunstbibliothek Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz Berlin 1984. Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, 1984, cat. no. 49, ill. („Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, preußischer Generallieutenant")

The Breslau-based textile entrepreneur Leo Lewin (1881–1965) began building his art collection after the First World War. He was particularly interested in German and French art. In 1928, Lewin acquired 52 works by Adolph von Menzel from the National Gallery in Berlin in exchange for 125 works by Max Slevogt from his own collection. Among the Menzel works he acquired was the present depiction of Prussian Lieutenant General Hans Karl von Winterfeldt (1707–1757), who served under Frederick the Great. Under pressure from the National Socialist regime, Lewin sold parts of his art collection. In May 1935, he consigned our Menzel drawing to the Max Perl auction house in Berlin—but was it actually sold there? From that point on, the whereabouts of the artwork initially remain unknown. In 1939, Leo Lewin fled to the United Kingdom. His remaining property in Germany was confiscated in 1941. The Menzel drawing evidently remained in Germany, as the art historian Guido Joseph Kern and art dealer Maria Dietrich sold it in 1942 to Adolf Hitler’s “Special Commission Linz”. After the war, it passed through the American Central Collecting Point into the possession of the Federal Republic of Germany. Most recently, the drawing was on long-term loan to the Kupferstichkabinett of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in Berlin. Research by historian Dr. Monika Tatzkow and the Federal Government’s Art Administration has shown that it is highly likely that Leo Lewin sold or lost the drawing due to Nazi persecution between 1935 and 1941. As a result, the work was restituted to his legal successors in 2025 by the Federal Government’s Art Administration.

Subject to change - Please refer to our conditions of sale.

164 Adolph Menzel

Wrocław 1815 – 1905 Berlin

Hans Karl von Winterfeldt, Prussian lieutenant-general (study of a Frederician officer). 1851

Black chalk, heightened with white, on brown paper. 29,1 × 21,1 cm (11 ½ × 8 ¼ in.). Not in the catalogue raisonné by Tschudi. [3108]

Provenance

Hermann Pächter, Berlin / Royal National Gallery, Berlin (until 1928) / Leo Lewin, Wrocław (1928 acquired in exchange from the National Gallery) / auction Max Perl, Berlin 1935 (consigned by Leo Lewin) / Guido Joseph and Franziska Kern, Berlin (late 1942) / Purchase for the „Sonderauftrag Linz“ through Galerie Almas, Munich (1942) / American military government, Central Collecting Point, Munich (1945-1949) / Bavarian Prime Minister, Munich, fiduciary takeover (1949-1952) / Acquired in trust (1949-1952) / Trust administration of cultural property at the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany, Munich (1952-1960) / Federal Republic of Germany (1960-2025, most recently on loan to the Kupferstichkabinett of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, Berlin) / 2025 restituted to the heirs of Leo Lewin

EUR 10,000

- 15,000

USD 11,200

- 16,900

Sold for:

12,700 EUR (incl. premium)

Auction 366

Thursday, June 5th 2025, 2:00 PM

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