Formerly in the Inventory: Max Slevogt’s “Portrait of Max Liebermann”

Published on August 22, 2025

That the histories of works no longer in a museum’s collection may still be relevant for provenance research is demonstrated by this Max Slevogt painting, part of the Wiesbaden Gemäldegalerie’s inventory from 1927 to 1940.

Given in Exchange

The “Portrait of Herr Deinhardt” by Simon Meister and “Rest before an Inn in a Southern Landscape” by Johannes Lingelbach have been in the Museum Wiesbaden’s collection since March 1940. Both works have been the subject of provenance research. Whereas the provenance of the Lingelbach painting has yet to be fully clarified, we can almost certainly rule out Simon Meister’s work’s being expropriated as the result of National Socialist persecution. Since the two works were acquired together in exchange for a painting by Max Slevogt from the Wiesbaden Gemäldegalerie’s inventory, an important focus of research has been on reconstructing the context in which the two paintings were acquired and thus also on the biography of the Slevogt painting given in exchange.

The exchange was effected with the Wiesbaden art dealer Wilhelmine Heinemann Ww., who in March 1940 received the “portrait of the Jewish painter Max Liebermann, painted by Slevogt” as of equivalent worth to the two aforementioned paintings. As we can further learn from Hermann Voss’s communication to the city mayor, authorising the exchange, “The picture, whose very subject precludes its being displayed, had no particular [sic] artistic value, since it is also hardly characteristic of Slevogt’s work.”

The painting by Slevogt, signed and dated 1901, had previously belonged to the Breslau merchant and art collector Leo Lewin (1881 – 1965). In financial straits, Lewin was forced in April 1927 to offer a part of his collection—including the “Portrait of Max Liebermann”—at auction by Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing in Berlin (figs. 1, 2, 3). 

Auction Catalogue Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Leo Lewin Collection - Breslau, 12 April 1927, Berlin 1927, p. 5
Fig. 1: Auction Catalogue Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Leo Lewin Collection - Breslau, 12 April 1927, Berlin 1927, p. 5 (https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24294#0005).
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Auction Catalogue Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Leo Lewin Collection - Breslau, 12 April 1927, Berlin 1927, p. 66
Figs. 2: Auction Catalogue Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Leo Lewin Collection - Breslau, 12 April 1927, Berlin 1927, p. 66 (https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24294#0066)
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Auction Catalogue Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Leo Lewin Collection - Breslau, 12 April 1927, Berlin 1927, p. 67
Fig. 3: Auction Catalogue Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing, Leo Lewin Collection - Breslau, 12 April 1927, Berlin 1927, p. 67 (https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.24294#0067)
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But the work failed to find a buyer. Some months later, from July to September 1927, it was shown at the Frankfurt Kunstverein’s Slevogt exhibition and there acquired for the Impressionism gallery of the Städtische Gemälde-Sammlung Wiesbaden (fig. 4).

Written communication of the Frankfurter Kunstverein to the Städtische Gemälde-Sammlung Wiesbaden dated 03.10.1927
Fig. 4: Written communication of the Frankfurter Kunstverein to the Städtische Gemälde-Sammlung Wiesbaden dated 03.10.1927, in: Historical records of the Museum Wiesbaden, “Purchases + Miscellaneous Communications to the Department Head (1927 – 1935)” file.
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Between 1935 and 1944, Hermann Voss concluded a large number of exchange deals with local art dealer Wilhelmine Heinemann on behalf of the Gemäldegalerie Wiesbaden. Except in a very few cases, a lack of surviving records makes it difficult to trace the suppliers used by Heinemann, whose activities were also of interest to the “Special Mission Linz.” Thus the attempt has been made to trace the fate of this painting by Max Slevogt—once a part of the museum’s collection—after the exchange deal, in hopes of gaining information on the art dealer’s networks and business relationships.

Present Location in the Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern

Max Slevogt painted his friend and colleague Max Lieberman in oils twice in 1901-1902. One of the portraits is in the inventory of the Landesmuseum Mainz. This “Portrait of Max Liebermann”, dated 1902, was acquired in 1972 by the Landesmuseum from the estate of Slevogt’s niece, Katharina Slevogt. The second “Portrait of Max Liebermann” dated 1901, has been in the Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern since 1985. Correspondence with provenance researcher Laura Vollmers has established that this picture is identical to the one owned by the Gemäldegalerie Wiesbaden from 1927 to 1940.[1] After the exchange deal with the Heinemann art dealer, documentation shows that it was initially—until 1942—owned by collector Franz-Josef Kohl-Weigand (1900-1972) of St. Ingbert. In October 1942 it was sold by the Sofie Jacob art gallery in Mannheim to Medical Counsellor Dr. Theodor Kiefer (1889-1985) of Kaiserslautern. Finally, the latter bequeathed the painting to the Museum Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern in 1985.

Even though the painting was certainly owned by Kohl-Weigand in 1940, no direct business contact between the collector and the Wiesbaden art dealer can be proven. It is still not clear whether Kohl-Weigand bought the picture directly from Heinemann or whether other persons or institutions were involved beforehand. Based on available sources, expropriation resulting from National Socialist persecution can be discounted.

The case described here shows very clearly that provenance research can produce extremely valuable results, even when an object has been “passed on” from a collection—illuminating not only the history of collections and institutions (in this case of the museums in Wiesbaden and Kaiserslautern from 1927 to 1985), but also the reception history of artworks and artists. Whereas in 1927 the picture was praised by the Wiesbaden Gemäldegalerie for its “beautiful colours and articulate expression” and “as a great asset for the collection,” thirteen years later, because it portrayed the Jewish painter Max Liebermann, it was considered “not worthy to be exhibited” and artistically of little worth.

Miriam Olivia Merz

[1] See https://dc.mpk.de/Details/Index/24841Opens in a new window, 31.07.2025.