SEven before the First World War, Germany could be considered the most “Picasso-friendly” country. His Parisian gallery owner Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who came from Germany, vigorously promoted Picasso’s international market. At that time the graphic collections of important German museums – such as the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin, the Städtische Galerie as part of the Frankfurter Städel, the Kunsthalle Mannheim and the Kunsthalle Bremen – founded their Picasso collections. It began with pages from the “Juggler” series of 1905. As far as the paintings are concerned, the Elberfeld Municipal Museum had already acquired “Acrobat and Young Harlequin” in 1911, the Hamburger Kunsthalle bought “The Absinthe Drinker” in 1920 and the Städel bought a portrait in 1924 of Picasso’s first wife Olga Chochlowa. All of these pictures were confiscated and sold by the National Socialists as “degenerate” works; none is in its original place today.
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Rose-Maria Gropp
Editor in the features section, responsible for the “art market”.
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Soon after 1945 the German museums tried to follow their international collection policy of the modern age, Picasso was one of the favored artists; his graphics were still affordable, you just had to appreciate them. Kahnweiler, born in Mannheim in 1881, played a key role in this reconstruction. The Kunsthalle Bremen was particularly successful in this regard and, according to its own statement, therefore has “one of the most important collections of prints by Pablo Picasso”. The museum’s holdings today include 618 graphics, three paintings and two drawings by the artist.
Diversity of graphic techniques
The Bremen gallery owner and art dealer Michael Hertz (1912 to 1988) played a central role in this. He achieved his special position through the close collaboration with Kahnweiler and his Parisian gallery Louise Leiris, now run by his stepdaughter. Because as early as May 1950, Kahnweiler transferred the sole agency for Picasso’s graphics from his gallery to Hertz. In the catalog book “The Picasso Connection. The artist and his Bremen gallery owner ”, this claim to exclusivity can be read:“ I am ready to purchase Picasso graphics for a total of FRS 650,000 invoice value on the condition of the absolute sole sale for all of Germany (FRG, GDR; Berlin) within one year “, Hertz wrote to Kahnweiler in December 1950:” The selection of the subject is up to me. However, I undertake to purchase at least 66% of the new sheets appearing within the specified period, at my own discretion, with 2 copies each. “
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Pablo Picasso, “Corrida IX”, 1957, brush in black ink
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Image: Kunsthalle Bremen / Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020
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This agreement can be seen as a prime example of assertive dealer behavior, and from then on Hertz understood how to defend the exclusivity obtained in this way again and again, against other importers or even private buyers. His special commitment to the placement of the works in German museums gave the Kunsthalle Bremen in particular the wide range of Picasso’s works from 1905 to 1968, almost all of his creative period. The recently published volume documents the Picasso collection in Bremen completely in its illustration section. At the same time, this is an excellent overview of the variety of graphic techniques – etching, aquatint, lithography, linocut, copperplate engraving – that he mastered, and of his representational versatility, which is by no means tied to precisely defined work phases.
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