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| Galerie Fritz Gurlitt | |
|---|---|
| Name | Galerie Fritz Gurlitt |
| Established | 1895 |
| Location | Berlin |
| Founder | Fritz Gurlitt |
| Type | Art gallery |
Galerie Fritz Gurlitt was a prominent Berlin commercial gallery active from the late 19th century into the mid-20th century, influential in promoting contemporary Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism, and early Expressionism. The gallery served as an exhibition venue, dealership, and cultural salon that connected artists, collectors, critics, and institutions across Germany, France, Austria, and beyond, shaping collecting practices in cities such as Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, and Munich. Its operations intersected with major figures, movements, and events including patrons, curators, critics, and wartime provenance controversies associated with the Nazi era, World War II, and postwar restitution efforts.
The gallery opened during the Wilhelmine era amid artistic debates involving the Berlin Secession, Münchner Secession, Salon des Indépendants, Académie Julian, Salon d'Automne, Royal Academy of Arts (London), and the institutional rivalries exemplified by the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and the National Gallery (Berlin). Early activities linked the gallery to the networks of dealers and collectors active around Paul Cassirer, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, Ambroise Vollard, Siegfried Bing, and Georges Petit. During the turbulent years surrounding World War I and the Weimar Republic, the gallery negotiated market shifts driven by exhibitions at venues such as the Grand Palais and auction houses like Sotheby's and Phillips. The rise of the Nazi Party and policies like the Reichskulturkammer regulations deeply affected operations, intersecting with seizures and forced sales during the Third Reich and the dispersal of collections after World War II.
Founded by Fritz Gurlitt, the gallery’s management involved members of the Gurlitt family and partnerships with dealers and critics associated with figures such as Max Liebermann, Ludwig Justi, Wilhelm von Bode, Adolf von Menzel, and Käthe Kollwitz. Subsequent managers and associates communicated with international galleries including Galerie Bernheim-Jeune, Goupil & Cie, Galerie Moos, Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer, and galleries in Paris, Vienna, and New York City. The gallery's correspondence network extended to collectors like Bemberg family, Jacob and Wilhelm Herz, Fritz von Wille, Eduard Arnhold, Kurt Genscher, and institutional figures connected to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunsthalle Bremen, and the Museum of Modern Art. Legal and commercial interactions referenced laws and institutions such as the Reichsgericht, Weimar Constitution, and postwar compensation offices.
Exhibitions featured artists tied to movements represented by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Egon Schiele, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Lovis Corinth, Adolf Menzel, Anselm Feuerbach, Arnold Böcklin, Ferdinand Hodler, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Klinger, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Emil Nolde, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Henri Rousseau, Diego Rivera, Paul Klee, Marc Chagall, Georg Baselitz, Joseph Beuys, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Alexej von Jawlensky, Christian Schad, Otto Mueller, Max Slevogt, Hans Thoma, Heinrich Zille, Rainer Maria Rilke, Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, Stefan Zweig, Alfred Döblin, Arnold Schönberg, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, and Felix Nussbaum. The gallery mounted solo and group shows, catalogues and sales that drew reviews from critics writing in newspapers like the Berliner Tageblatt, Vossische Zeitung, and journals such as Die Kunst für Alle and Pan (magazine).
The gallery functioned as both exhibition space and commercial dealer, handling consignments for private collectors including the von Gloeden family, Fritz Nathan, Heinrich Thyssen, August Macke collectors, Ludwig and Rosy Lippmann, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Samuel Courtauld, and institutions such as the National Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Musée d'Orsay, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Albertina, Pinakothek der Moderne, Stedelijk Museum, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, and regional museums. Sales passed through auction houses like the Dorotheum, Kunsthaus Lempertz, and Christie’s, and involved curators and historians including Ernst Gombrich, Lionel Feuchtwanger, Max J. Friedländer, Erwin Panofsky, and Helmut Börsch-Supan.
Located in central Berlin, the gallery’s premises were part of a milieu that included buildings associated with architects and patrons such as Heinrich Seeling, Friedrich August Stüler, Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Martin Gropius, Bruno Taut, and neighboring cultural sites like the Unter den Linden, Friedrichstraße, Tiergarten, Charlottenburg Palace, Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, and nearby institutions including the Staatsoper Unter den Linden and the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Interior arrangements reflected exhibition practices informed by museum display debates from the British Museum to the Louvre and the emerging modern gallery models in New York City and Paris.
Contemporary reception was shaped by critics, collectors, and cultural figures including Alfred Kerr, Paul Westheim, Wilhelm von Bode, Hans Posse, Rudolf Bing, Gertud Arndt, Eberhard Roters, and intellectuals such as Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Siegfried Kracauer, Hannah Arendt, Ernst Bloch, Karl Jaspers, and Bertolt Brecht. The gallery influenced collecting trends among Jewish and non-Jewish patrons, intersecting with cultural debates in publications like Die Weltbühne and institutions like the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin. Its legacy is discussed by modern historians and curators at universities such as Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, University of Oxford, Courtauld Institute of Art, and research centers including the German Lost Art Foundation.
Provenance research into works passing through the gallery has involved restitution cases connected to families and claimants such as Gurlitt family, Restitution Committee (Netherlands), German Advisory Commission, Bundesamt für zentrale Dienste und offene Vermögensfragen, survivors like Margarete Lauterbach, heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Alma Mahler-Werfel estate, and claimants represented by lawyers linked to institutions including the Zentrum für Kulturgutverluste, American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Monuments in War Areas, and international legal forums referencing the Washington Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the Terezin Declaration. Research projects and exhibitions addressing looted art and forced sales have engaged historians such as Sophie Lillie, Hilke Thode-Arora, Jonathan Petropoulos, Tobias Wegner, Monika Flacke, Stephanie Barron, and institutions like the Ludwig Museum and the Jewish Museum Berlin.
Category:Art galleries in Berlin Category:Defunct art galleries