Leicester's 20th Century German Art Collection
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Origins of the Collection
Leicester is unique amongst Local authority museums services in its possession of an internationally renowned collection of German art. The origins of the collection were the result of a remarkable combination of local and historical circumstances and the contributions of individual museum staff members.
By 1939 a progressive arts collecting policy had been established by arts assistant A.C. Sewter incorporating the purchase of contemporary British and continental (including German) art. This paved the way for the first acquisitions of such work in 1944 and subsequent developments.
Among many refugees who had fled Germany prior to the Second World War were artists and collectors of the works then vilified and outlawed by Hitler and the National Socialists. These included owners of collections such as Tekla Hess, widow of the renowned Erfurt collector Alfred Hess, and the art historian Dr. Rosa Schapire.
A key event at this time was an exhibition staged at the museum in 1944, entitled ‘Mid-European Art’. The key figure behind this was the dynamic and gifted Trevor Thomas, Director of the museum from 1940 to 1946 and posessing vision and imagination. He recognised the excellence of the Hess collection, and arranged for works from this and other émigré collections to be lent to the exhibition, from which four key acquisitions were made: Franz Marc’s Red Woman, Lyonel Feininger’s Behind the Church, Emil Nolde’s Head with Red-Black Hair and Max Pechstein’s The Bridge at Erfurt.
In 1953, a further exhibition, of the art of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff consisted of works lent by the collector Dr. Rosa Schapire and the artist. In 1955 after Dr. Schapire’s death the museum received part of her collection of Schmidt-Rottluff’s graphic work.
Under the leadership of subsequent curators of fine art further exhibitions, donations and purchases followed. In 1975 the unique status of the collection was recognised, when the acquisition of modern German art was permanently written into the museum’s collecting policy. The collection continues to grow by purchase, gift and bequest and a representative selection of works are on permanent display at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery.
New German Expressionist Artworks
Three striking and powerful artworks, recently acquired by Leicester Arts and Museums Service, are now on display in the German Expressionist Gallery. The first is a rare and sought after woodcut print dated 1914, “Sailing Boat off Fehmarn”, by E. L. Kirchner (1880-1938), the brilliant and radical leader of the German Expressionist art group known as Die Brücke (The Bridge). The second work, donated from a private collection, is an etching from 1912-13, “Young Woman with High Hat”, by Kirchner’s friend and fellow Brücke artist Erich Heckel (1883-1970). Finally the third and perhaps most unusual work is a rare early self-portrait by Ernst Neuschul (1895-1968), entitled “Messias” (Messiah) signed and dated 1919.