Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31664/ripu.2019.43.18
Paintings of Old Masters from the Collection of Ervin and Branka Weiss in the Strossmayer Gallery in Zagreb
Iva Pasini Tržec
orcid.org/0000-0002-5493-3047
; Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, Strossmayerova galerija starih majstora, Zagreb
Abstract
The Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters at Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts owns sixteen paintings by old masters from the collection of Ervin (1884–1966) and Branka Weiss (d. 1975). Based on a comprehensive study of documents stored in various archival institutions and holdings, this article outlines the fate of the Weiss collection shortly before, during, and after World War II, and identifies the circumstances under which the said paintings were transferred to the Strossmayer Gallery. Industrialist and wholesaler Ervin Weiss, director of the Trbovlje Coalmine, enjoyed a high reputation in the interwar period, both in economy and in the cultural life of Zagreb. Well informed about the art markets in major regional centres, especially Vienna, Ervin Weiss managed to assemble a significant art collection, which enjoyed an international esteem. Having married Branka Huth in 1925, Weiss converted to Catholicism. After the establishment of the Independent State of Croatia, his collection was listed and photographed, and placed under the authority of the Conservation Office, but it did not share the fate of most Jewish collections that were voluntarily or forcibly stored at the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb during the war. After the war, in 1945, Weiss’ collection in his apartment on the second floor of a building at Boškovićeva Street no. 2 was registered and placed under the protection of the Conservation Institute, and in 1947 it was granted the status of a private collection of public significance. However, in 1949, the property of Ervin Weiss was sequestered and subsequently confiscated, and his artworks were handed over to the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts. The Weiss collection is now scattered across various museum institutions in Zagreb. An analysis of annotated Viennese auction catalogues confirms Ervin Weiss’ direct involvement in the art market there. His name appears in the so-called protocol catalogues of the Auktionshaus für Altertümer Glückselig and the auctioneer C. J. Wawra (Alfred Wawra). Based on the information about the sale/purchase of paintings by the old masters, new insights could be obtained about the early provenance of some of them and their fate before entering the Weiss collection. In 1925, Ervin Weiss bought the Portrait of a Lady with a Lap Dog from the Auktionshaus für Altertümer Glückselig, at the sale of the collection of Jacques Mühsam (1857–1930) a Berlin-based textile producer, and in 1927 the painting A Harbour in the Netherlands at the sale of the legacy of Victor (1865–1919) and Helena Mautner-Markhof (d. 1926), descendants of a reputable Czech family of brewers. It is from the same auction house that Weiss most likely bought the painting Holy Family with St Elizabeth and St John the Baptist, originating from the Fürsten von und zu Liechtenstein collection in Vienna. It had been part of the princely collection from before 1807 to 1922, when it was sold to the Glückselig auction house. Another painting that was probably acquired from the same auctioneer was A Lady Conversing with a Gentleman, which has a note in Cyrillic on the back saying “M. G. Kraevskaya” and “V. F. Kraevsky”. Research on the physical traces on the back of paintings complement our knowledge of Weiss’ purchases in the Austrian market. A piece of paper with the stamp of the Bundesdenkmalamt, used from 1923 to 1934, is preserved on the back of the Village Festival and probably also on the back of the Prodigal Son, although in a very poor state of preservation. So far, the only export license found in the Bundesdenkmalamt archive in Vienna issued to Ervin Weiss probably refers to the Herd with the Shepherds, which corresponds to the brief description “unbekannter Maler, Vieherde a./d. [an der] Tränke”.
Keywords
collection of Ervin and Branka Weiss; Strossmayer Gallery of Old Masters at HAZU; paintings by old masters; provenance; Viennese art market; Auktionshaus für Altertümer Glückselig
Hrčak ID:
233950
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2019.
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