Cornelis Springer
View of Lübeck Market
1870
Oil on canvas. 102 x 142 cm.
Signed and dated lower right: C Springer 1870..
Springer was commissioned by the Bremen merchant von J.D. Dreyer to paint the ‘View of the Lübeck Market’ at the height of his artistic career. The artist's sales records show that Dreyer purchased the Lübeck city view for 1,400 guilders on 24 February 1870. Considering that the average annual income at the time was around 85 guilders, this purchase price was an extraordinarily high sum.
The large-format view of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck, founded in the 12th century, with the important St Mary's Church and imposing town hall, adorned the Viennese palace of the Jewish banker and art collector Victor Ephrussi until 1938. A historical photograph from 1905 shows his wife Baroness Emilie Henrietta Schey von Koromla (1879-1938) posing in front of the painting. The Hanseatic City of Lübeck restituted the painting to the heirs of Ignaz Ephrussi in 2004.
Catalogue Raisonné
Laanstra/de Bruijn/Ringeling, Nr. 70-2.
Provenance
The artist. - J. D. Dryer, Bremen 1870 (24 February 1870, acquired directly from the artist for 1400 fl). - Collection Ignaz von Ephrussi (1829–1899), Vienna. - Viktor von Ephrussi (1860-1945), Vienna (inherited from the father), bis 1938. - Confiscation of Viktor Ephrussi's assets by the Nazi regime after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, 1938. - Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, transferred in 1939 from the fromer Ephrussi estate. - Galerie St. Lucas, Vienna, 1 December 1939 (purchased from the aforementioned for RM 1,700). - Museen der Hansestadt Lübeck, Inv.no. 6918, December 1939/January 1940 (acquired from the aformentioned, for 1.750 RM). - Restitution of the Museen für Kunst und Kultrugeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, Museum Behnhaus, Drägerhaus, to the heirs of Ignaz Ephrussi, 2004. - Sotheby´s, London, Auction 16.11.2004, lot 265. - Acquired at the above mentioned auction.
Literature
Salon d'Anvers. Exposition Nationale Catalogue des ouvrages de peinture, sculpture, architecture, gravure et dessin, 14.8.1870, no. 878, p. 130 (as ‘Le marché et l'hotel de ville à Lubeck’). - F. von Boetticher: Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, (Neudr. Der Ausgabe Dresden 1891-1901), Leipzig 1941, vol. 2, no. 8, p. 792. - Die deutsche Stadt in vier Jahrhunderten, exhib. cat. Fränkische Galerie am Marientor, Nuremberg 1962, no. 159, p. 116 (as ‘Der Marktplatz in Lübeck’). - Das Alte Lübecker Stadtbild, exhib. cat. Museen für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, 1963, cover illustration, no. 81 (as ‘Markt mit Rathaus und Marienkirche’). - Pictures of German cities. Exhib. Akademie der Künste Berlin West, 1966 - G. Lindtke (ed.): Alte Lübecker Stadtansichten, Lübecker Museumshefte, Lübeck 1968, no. 157, ill. p. 48 (market with town hall and St Mary's Church). - W. Schadendorf: Hefte zur Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, 4, 1975, p. 45f. - Museum Behnhaus, Lübecker Museumsführer, 3,2, 2nd uned. Lübeck 1976, no. 219, p. 116 - Kunst und Kultur Lübecks im 19. Jahrhundert, Cat. Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck, 1981, cover illus. - Willem Laanstra/H. C. de Bruijn/J.H.A.Ringeling: Cornelis Springer (1817-1891), Utrecht, 1984. illus. p. 166, no. 70-2 (as ‘De Markt te Lübeck’, with incorrect measurements). - S. Lillie: Was einmal war. Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens, Vienna 2003, pp. 338-341, ill. p. 338, no. 7, p. 431 (listed). -The Ephrussis. Eine Zeitreise / The Ephrussis. A journey in time, exhib. cat. Jewish Museum Vienna, 2019, p. 115 (list of confiscated works), ill. p. 146, p. 167 (correspondence between museums in Vienna and Lübeck) - A. Wenz: Die Wiener Ephrussis. - Eine jüdische Familie zwischen Vermögensentzug und Restitution, Master's thesis, University of Vienna, 2023, p. 70.
Exhibitions
Salon d´Anvers, Antwerpen 1870, no. 878. - Die Deutsche Stadt in vier Jahrhunderten, Fränkische Galerie am Marientor, , Nuremberg 1-2/1962, no. 159. - Das Alte Lübecker Stadtbild, Museen für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck,19.5.-30.6.1963, no. 81. - Bilder deutscher Städte, Akademie der Künste Berlin West, 1966. - Die Ephrussis. Eine Zeitreisehe / The Ephrussis. A travel in time, Jewish Museum Vienna, 6.11.2019 - 8.3.2020.