Museum: Pissaro painting and the tragic story of its owner
Published: Thursday, Nov 14th 2024, 18:30
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Idyllic summer scene: a girl lying on the grass. A Jewish family had to sell the painting in order to survive. Now the story is being told.
For decades, a painting sold under the duress of the persecution of Jews during the Second World War was sought. The painting "Girl Lying on the Grass" (1882) by Impressionist painter Camille Pissarro is on display at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and tells the tragic family story of its former Jewish owners. "A painting of light with a dark history," said the Van Gogh Museum.
Bremen Art Gallery
A special agreement between the Bremen Kunsthalle, Dutch institutes and the family's heirs led to the exhibition of the painting in Amsterdam and research into the family history. Dutch and German art experts and historians researched the history of the family and the search for the painting. "Girl in the Grass: The Tragic Fate of the van den Bergh Family and the Search for a Painting" is the title of the book.
The painting depicts a peaceful summer landscape with a girl lying in the grass. In 1943, the Jewish-Dutch van den Bergh family sold the painting under pressure to save the family from persecution by the German National Socialists. Jaap and Ellen survived. But their two young daughters Rosemarie and Marianne, who lived in another hiding place, were betrayed and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp - they were eight and five years old.
After the war, Jaap van den Bergh requested the return of the painting. The search for the painting was unsuccessful. The application reportedly only resurfaced in 2016 in the course of research into looted art. This led to the discovery that the missing painting was in the possession of the Kunsthalle Bremen.
Family history researched
The couple's third daughter, Suzan, born after the war, wanted to get the painting back. Art that Jews had to sell under pressure at the time is considered looted art. The restitution of works of art to heirs is often associated with lengthy procedures. In this case, the heiress wanted her family's history to be researched as compensation. "I see this book as a tribute to my father, my mother and my sisters. It is the little bit of life I can still give Rosemarie and Marianne," she writes in the book.
During the war, the painting had come into the hands of the art collector and collaborator Hugo Oelze, a German lawyer from Bremen who lived in Amsterdam. After his death, he bequeathed his paintings to the Kunsthalle in his home city.
Basel Art Museum
It is worth noting that a similar case also came to light on Thursday: The Kunstmuseum Basel is compensating the heiresses of a Jewish collector for the painting "La Maison Rondest, l'Hermitage, Pontoise" (1875), also by Camille Pissaro. The parties have agreed not to disclose the sum involved.
The painting came into the museum's possession three years ago via a collector who has since died and who knew nothing of the painting's history. It belonged to the Jewish textile entrepreneur Richard Semmel, who had to sell it to finance his escape from Germany.
©Keystone/SDA
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