In 2022 the Hessisches Landesmuseum Darmstadt acquired 121 graphic prints by mostly English and American artists of the period around 1900 as a gift from the Kleinstück collection. This was a significant addition to the museum’s collection as almost all of the few such prints hitherto owned by the museum had been destroyed by fire in 1944. The new acquisitions were examined for possible expropriation resulting from National Socialist persecution. None of the works could be demonstrably associated with such expropriation. Besides the collectors’ stamps on the drawings—including such names as Heinrich Stinnes (1867-1932), Otto Gerstenberg (1848-1935) and Richard Jung (1911-1986)—the inscriptions on many of the passe-partouts have proved invaluable to provenance research. Almost all of the 38 sheets from the Heinrich Stinnes collection were still in their original passe-partouts, each bearing a characteristic inscription in their lower right-hand corner, that detailed not only the artist and subject but also the place and date of purchase and purchase price. For instance, on the passe-partout of Ernest Lumsden’s “Forth Bridge”, the work’s provenance is recorded as “E. Richter 1912”. The inscription shows that Stinnes acquired the etching in 1912 from Emil Richter’s Dresden art salon for 63 Marks. On the passe-partout of Charles Watson’s “L‘étameur, St. Riquier” the inscription reads “Abels 1912” and records that Stinnes purchased the work in 1912 in Cologne, his place of residence, for 120 Marks from the art dealer Hermann Abels. Yet the Stinnes collection—at his death in 1932 allegedly comprising some 200,000 works—was gradually sold off by his heirs from 1933 onwards. Only one of the works that eventually found its way into the HMLD collection could be identified as originating from a probate auction, held in November 1936 at Hollstein & Puppel’s in Berlin. The provenance of the other works after 1933 must thus for the moment remain an open question. When did the Stinnes heirs put them on the market, and who bought them? Unfortunately the later owners did not record on the passe-partouts where and from whom they acquired the works. The Stinnes collection as a whole remains unresearched, and thus the hope remains that further information on the provenance of these and other works will someday come to light.
Exhibition
A selection of 80 works will be shown from 27.6. to 20.9.2024 in the exhibition “Graphic revival. Natur, Mensch, Industrie in England um 1900” in the HMLD. There is an e-book to downloadOpens in a new window.
Udo Felbinger
