Düsseldorf: Ceremonial handover of "Portrait of the Artist's Children" Wilhelm von Schadow to Max & Iris Stern Foundation

Düsseldorf, 15 May 2023

Düsseldorf: Ceremonial handover of "Portrait of the Children of the Artist" Wilhelm von Schadow to "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation" by Lord Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller and Commissioner Miriam Koch.

Mayor Dr. Keller (2nd from right) with Dr. Clarence Epstein from the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation", Isabelle Poupart (l.), Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the Canadian Embassy in Germany, and Councillor Miriam Koch.

© City of Düsseldorf/Michael Gstettenbauer

Düsseldorf, 15 May 2023: Today, the ceremonial handover of the restituted painting "Portrait of the Artist's Children" (1830) by Wilhelm von Schadow to the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation" took place in Düsseldorf City Hall. Present at the momentous event were: Lord Mayor Dr. Stephan Keller, Dr. Clarence Epstein from the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation", Miriam Koch, Düsseldorf's Commissioner for Culture and Integration, Isabelle Poupart, Chargé d'Affaires of the Canadian Embassy, Mayor Clara Gerlach and Mayor Josef Hinkel. Art was also represented by Dr Felix Krämer, Director of the Kunstpalast, where the painting will remain, and the Director of the Stadtmuseum, Dr Susanne Anna.


Clarence Epstein had travelled from Canada especially for the occasion. In his speech, he reconstructed the history of the return of the painting. In his speech, he found thoughtful words and also mentioned that he had heard that the city's past was deeply brown, in terms of colours. He had already collaborated with three mayors, but it was only with the current Lord Mayor, Dr Stephan Keller, that an agreement was reached. A planned agreement in 2015 fell through and the Foundation then concentrated on other projects, for example in Munich. Then in 2022 there was a complete turnaround because the city of Düsseldorf contacted the Foundation directly. Clarence Epstein mentioned that he was now very hopeful for a future cooperation with the city of Düsseldorf; there was even talk of a Max Stern Allee.


Background

In its meeting on Thursday, 20 April, the council of the state capital Düsseldorf decided to restitute the painting "Portrait of the Artist's Children" (1830) by Wilhelm von Schadow to the "Dr. Max and Iris Stern Foundation". 


After years of controversy over the Düsseldorf-born art dealer Max Stern (1904-1987), Miriam Koch found that "The city could not prove that it was not a restitution case". She agreed with Lord Mayor Stephan Keller that it would be a good signal to settle the dispute without calling the Advisory Commission on the Restitution of Nazi-confiscated Cultural Property. Trust had been lost and the Canadian foundation was not in good terms with the city of Düsseldorf.



Political headlines about Düsseldorf in the international press

The City of Düsseldorf then formally decided to restitute the Schadow painting and paid an "appropriate" price to the Foundation. The painting now remains in Düsseldorf. A new era in the cooperation between Düsseldorf and the Max Stern Foundation has begun, said Miriam Koch. It follows the fourth principle of the 1998 Washington Conference, according to which finding a just and fair solution should take into account "that gaps and ambiguities" in provenance are unavoidable due to the passage of time and the special circumstances of the Holocaust.


Dr Clarence Epstein, Director of the Max Stern Restitution Project: "The path to restitution of this second Schadow painting from the Stern collections was fraught with more political setbacks than the first painting, which we received back from the state capital Düsseldorf ten years ago. We welcome the decision of the current administrative leadership to adhere to the principles of the Washington Conference on Nazi looted art."


In 2017, there had been controversy because the then Lord Mayor Thomas Geisel had cancelled an exhibition on Stern, justifying this with the restitution demands of the Canadian foundation. As Clarence Epstein confirmed today, this had outraged the Foundation and also given political headlines about Düsseldorf in the international press.


The provenance of the painting

The City of Düsseldorf states the following about the provenance of the painting:

In 1931, the "Portrait of the Artist's Children" was on loan from an art dealer, probably the Julius Stern Gallery, at an exhibition at the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen. It was not until ten years later that the painting could be reliably attributed to an owner in Essen. In 1937, the work is illustrated in a book on children's paintings published by Langewiesche Verlag. At the time, the Stern Gallery provided the photographic master and a printing permit. Who was in possession of the painting at that time could not be determined. The photograph indicates that the painting was traded by Galerie Stern at an unknown time. In the auction and exhibition catalogues as well as in the gallery's customer file, however, there is no indication that the work was part of the gallery's range of goods after 1931. After the child's portrait had been in municipal possession for a short time at the end of the 19th century, it was acquired again by the city of Düsseldorf in 1959 from private property in Essen. Until 1977 it hung in the office of the Lord Mayor in the City Hall and was finally transferred to the Kunstmuseum (now the Kunstpalast).


The Stern Gallery in Düsseldorf

Julius Stern had been working as an art dealer in Düsseldorf since 1913, opening his gallery on Königsallee in 1917. His son Max Stern (1904-1987) continued the business after his father's death in 1934. The gallery specialised, among other things, in art of the Düsseldorf School of Painting and, along with the Flechtheim and Paffrath galleries, was one of the best-known addresses in the Düsseldorf art trade at the time. Under persecution by the Nazi regime, Max Stern was finally forced to give up the business in 1937 and to have a large part of the stock auctioned off. The emigration, which Max Stern and his family only managed at considerable economic loss, took him via Paris and London to Canada. In Montreal, the art dealer, who had been driven out of Düsseldorf by the National Socialists, regained a foothold in the art trade and, together with his wife Iris Stern, ran the successful Dominion Gallery from 1947.


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You can see the painting from August 2023:

Kunstpalast Düsseldorf

Ehrenhof 4-5, 40479 Düsseldorf

kunstpalast.de

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