About the provenance
Berthold (1865–1942) and Martha Nothmann (1874–1967) acquired Paul Cézanne’s Landscape in around 1926/27. Berthold Nothmann was director of the Huldschinsky pipe factory in Gleiwitz (now Gliwice, Poland), and became director of the Upper Silesian Steelworks Corporation after the First World War. His success enabled him to accumulate a collection of German and French art. After he retired in 1931, he and his wife moved to Berlin-Wannsee, where they remained until 1938/39, some time after the Nazis came to power.
Owing to Nazi persecution, however, they ultimately fled to London to escape the threat on their lives. They sold part of their collection in order to be able to fund their journey and pay the ‘Reich flight tax’ and the ‘Jewish capital levy’ to the Nazi regime. They were able to take some works with them, which they sold while in exile to support themselves.
Berthold Nothmann died in London in 1942, while Martha managed to reach the US before the war ended. In 1947, she offered some paintings to the collector Oskar Reinhart in Winterthur, writing: ‘Please excuse me for venturing to write to you so directly, but times are so hard and we had imagined that our lives would end differently.’ Cézanne’s Landscape from Martha Nothmann's collection was bought by the art dealer Fritz Nathan in the summer of 1947 in New York. He then sold it not to the Winterthur collector Oskar Reinhart, as Martha Nothmann suspected, but to Emil Bührle.
The extent to which this sale constitutes a confiscation as a result of Nazi persecution will be assessed as part of the Kunsthaus Zürich’s new provenance research strategy, which includes the Emil Bührle Collection. Unquestionably, it was caused by the Nazi state’s policy of persecution and looting. However, the change of ownership did not take place in a country that was occupied by Nazi Germany or limited in its freedom to act, and only after the war ended in 1945.
State of research 26.06.2024
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Literature (general)
- Lionello Venturi: Cézanne. Son art, son œuvre, Bd. 1, Paris: Paul Rosenberg Éditeur, 1936, No. 306.
- Alfonso Gatto: L'opera completa di Cézanne, Mailand: Rizzoli Editore, 1970, No. 312 (ill.).
- Julius Meier-Graefe: Cézanne und sein Kreis. Ein Beitrag zur Entwicklungsgeschichte, München, 1918, S. 184 (ill.).
- John Rewald: The Paintings of Paul Cézanne. A Catalogue Raisonné, Bd. 1, New York, NY: Abrams, 1996, No. 412.
- Die Sammlung Emil Bührle. Geschichte, Gesamtkatalog und 70 Meisterwerke, hrsg. vom Schweizerischen Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA), München: Hirmer, 2021, No. 153, S. 264 (ill.).
- Sammlung Emil G. Bührle. Festschrift zu Ehren von Emil G. Bührle zur Eröffnung des Kunsthaus-Neubaus und Katalog der Sammlung Emil G. Bührle, hrsg. von Kunsthaus Zürich, Sammlungskatalog Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, 1958, No. 221, S. 129.
- Stiftung Sammlung Emil G. Bührle, hrsg. von Leopold Reidemeister, Sammlungskatalog, Zürich: Artemis Verlag, 1973, No. 52 (ill.).
- Emil Maurer: Stiftung Sammlung E. G. Bührle, Zürich, Bern: Gesellschaft für Schweizerische Kunstgeschichte, 1994, S. 43.
- Lukas Gloor: «Der Bestand der Sammlung Emil Bührle: Illustrierte Liste aller 633 Käufe», in: Die Sammlung Emil Bührle. Geschichte, Gesamtkatalog und 70 Meisterwerke, hrsg. vom Schweizerischen Institut für Kunstwissenschaft (SIK-ISEA), München: Hirmer, 2021, S. 253-297, No. 153 (ill.).
- Stiftung Sammlung E. G. Bührle Zürich, Bd. 3 von 3, hrsg. von Lukas Gloor, Sammlungskatalog, Conegliano (Treviso): Linea d'Ombra Libri, 2005, No. 111 (ill.).
- Walter Feilchenfeldt: «Cézanne’s Collectors, From Zola to Annenberg», in: Cézanne, hrsg. von Françoise Cachin/Jane Watkins, Ausst.-Kat. Galeries Nationales d'Exposition du Grand Palais/Philadelphia Museum of Art/ Tate Gallery, New York, NY: Abrams, 1995, S. 578.
- Le Bulletin de la vie artistique (1 Mars 1924), 1924, S. 111 (ill.).
- Adolphe Tabarant: «Quelque propos sur Cézanne», in: Le Bulletin de la vie artistique (1 Mars 1924), 1924, S. 104-107, S. 104 (ill.).
- Julius Meier-Graefe: Cézanne, London/New York, NY: Ernest Benn Limited, 1927.
- Doris Wild: «Private Kunstsammlungen in der Schweiz. Die Sammlung Emil Bührle in Zürich», in: Das Kunstwerk. Eine Zeitschrift über alle Gebiete der Bildenden Kunst (SIEBTES JAHR - HEFT 1), Baden-Baden: Woldemar Klein, 1953, No. 6, S. 28.
- John Rewald: The Paintings of Paul Cézanne. A Catalogue Raisonné, Bd. 2, New York, NY: Abrams, 1996, ill. No. 412.
- Lionello Venturi: Cézanne. Son art, son œuvre, Bd. 2, Paris: Paul Rosenberg Éditeur, 1936, ill. No. 82.