Beschreibung:

Liebermann (Max, 1847-1935). Portrait of Hertha Morgenstern, 1921, pastel and coloured chalks on thick card, half-length portrait of a dark-haired young lady, seated in a carved wooden chair, her hands clasped on her knee, wearing a dark dress, a diaphanous green stole, and bangles on her arms, some surface marks and spotting, signed in red lower left 'Mx Liebermann Berlin 1921', 97 x 72 cm (38 1/4 x 28 3/8 ins), mounted on a contemporary black painted wooden support to verso (101 x 76.5 cm) Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Max and Hertha Morgenstern; thence by descent to Charles and Pauline Morton of Rowde Court, near Devizes, Wiltshire. Hertha Israel (1900-1962) married Maximilian Morgenstern (1883-1946) in 1922, and this picture was painted just prior to their marriage, presumably as a formal engagement portrait. Wealthy owner of a textile mill, Max Morgenstern was a bibliophile and art collector particularly known for his patronage and mentorship of Alfred Kubin whose works he began collecting in the early 1900s. He and his wife had two children, both sons - Charles Peter (Curt Peter) Morton and Robert William (Wolgang Robert) Morton. At the outbreak of WWII Max and Hertha were forced to flee their opulent home in Vienna, to England, where their sons were being educated. The couple took very little with them, and most of their possessions were seized by the Nazis. Max Liebermann lived and worked for a time in Munich, but in 1884 returned to Berlin where he remained for the rest of his life. Prior to the Second World War he was lauded by high society; noted particularly for his portraiture, it is not surprising that he was chosen to portray Hertha, a relation of the wealthy Rothschild family. However, as for his fellow-Jews the Morgensterns, the rise of Hitler sounded the death knell to life as he knew it. Liebermann withdrew from public life in 1933 and two years later, at the age of 87, he died.