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27R

Wilhelm Lehmbruck

Duisburg 1881 – 1919 Berlin

”Liegender Frauenhalbakt”. 1915

Pastel on yellow brownish cardboard. 65,3 × 97,9 cm (25 ¾ × 38 ½ in.).
This picture shows the following artwork: Wilhelm Lehmbruck. ”Liegender Frauenhalbakt”. 1915.

Estimate:

EUR 60,000

 

- 80,000

USD 67,400

 

- 89,900

Sold for:

76,200 EUR (incl. premium)

Summer Auctions 2025

Selected Works, Thursday, 05.06.2025

Information

Pastel on yellow brownish cardboard. 65,3 × 97,9 cm (25 ¾ × 38 ½ in.). Signed in pencil lower right: W. Lehmbruck. Inscribed in pencil on the reverse: No 28. On the cardboard backing detached labels as well as enclosed label of Galerie Paul Cassirer, Berlin, of Buchholz Gallery, New York, of the Minneapolis Art Institute and the Art Gallery of Toronto. Catalogue raisonné: Lahusen 49. Framed

The pastel is free of restitution claims and is being offered in agreement with the heirs of Robert Herrmann. .

Paul Cassirer, Berlin / Sally Falk, Mannheim (aquired 1916 from the above-mentioned) / Paul Rudolf Pfrunder, Zurich (1919) / Graphisches Kabinett I.B. Neumann, Berlin (from 1919/20) / Kunsthaus Dr. Herbert Tannenbaum, Mannheim (1921) / Robert Karl Herrmann, Mannheim/The Hague (presumably from 1921–1938/40) / Herbert Tannenbaum, Amsterdam / Richard S. Davis, Minneapolis (1948) / Wilhelm Landmann, Toronto (1948–1987) / estate Wilhelm Landmann (1987–2004) / Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired 2004 at Grisebach, Berlin)

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.

Kollektivausstellung Wilhelm Lehmbruck. Mannheim, Kunsthalle, 1916, cat. no. 28 („Schlafende“) / Drawings by Contemporary Painters and Sculptors. New York, Buchholz Gallery Curt Valentin, 1947, cat. no. 42 („Reclining Nude“, sold) / National Exhibition. Toronto, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1961, without cat. no. („Nude“) / Für die Kunst! Herbert Tannenbaum und sein Kunsthaus. Mannheim, Reiß-Museum, 1994/95, cat. no. 220, ill. p. 89

Roland Dorn, Karoline Hille, Jochen Kronjäger: Stiftung und Sammlung Sally Falk. Kunst und Dokumentation 11. Mannheim, Städtische Kunsthalle, 1994, ill. p. 177 („Schlafende“) / Auktion 122: Kunst des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Berlin, Villa Grisebach Auktionen, 26.11.2004, cat. no. 22, w. ill. 

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