Joseph Barth

Heinrich Füger (German, 1751–1818)

1786

Medium/TechniqueWatercolor on ivory

Dimensions17.1 x 12.1 cm (6 3/4 x 4 3/4 in.)

Credit LineGift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild

Accession number2015.100

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsMiniatures

Collections

Europe

ProvenanceBy 1903, Nathaniel von Rothschild (b. 1836 - d. 1905), Vienna [see note 1]; by descent to his nephew, Alphonse de Rothschild (b. 1878 – d. 1942) and Clarice de Rothschild (b. 1894 – d. 1967), Vienna; 1938, confiscated from Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild by Nazi forces (no. AR 1105c) [see note 2]; taken to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and stored at the Central Depot, Neue Burg, Vienna; August 29, 1941, given over to the Federal Monuments Office, Vienna [see note 3]; February 6, 1943, seleted for the Führermuseum, Linz [see note 4]; removed to the monastery of Kremsmünster and subsequently to Alt Aussee; July 18, 1945, shipped by Allied forces from Alt Aussee to the Munich Central Collecting Point (MCCP no. 4713/11) [see note 5]; March 15, 1948, released from the MCCP to United States Forces in Austria; 1948, returned to Clarice de Rothschild, New York [see note 5]; by descent to her daughter, Bettina Looram de Rothschild (b. 1924 - d. 2012); about 1990/1992, given by Bettina Looram de Rothschild to members of her family; 2015 gift of the heirs of Bettina Looram de Rothschild to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 25, 2015)

NOTES:
[1] Nathaniel Rothschild, Notizen über einige meiner Kunstgegenstände (Vienna, 1903), p. 119, cat. no. 288; and Inventar über die in den Nathaniel Freiherr von Rothschild'schen Nachlass gehörigen, in dem Palais in Wien, IV. Bezirk, Theresianumgasse Nr. 14 befindlichen Kunstgegenstände und Einrichtungsstücke (Vienna, 1906), p. 413, no. 239.

[2] With the Anschluss, or annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany in March, 1938, the possessions of Alphonse and Clarice de Rothschild were seized and expropriated almost immediately by Nazi forces. This miniature appears in a Nazi-generated inventory of 1939 as no. AR (Alphonse Rothschild) 1105c: "Miniatur, Füger, Herrenporträt mit Schlapphut, mit Bronzerahmen, oval, 1780. Signiert" Katalog beschlagnahmter Sammlungen, inbesondere der Rothschild-Sammlungen in Wien, Verlags-Nr. 4938, Staatsdruckerei Wien, 1939, Privatarchiv, reproduced in Sophie Lillie, "Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens" (Vienna, 2003), p. 1039.

[3] This miniature was catalogued at the Central Depot, and given over to the Federal Monuments Office in 1941. Card no. AR 1105c, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online.

[4] The Führermuseum, the art museum Adolf Hitler planned to build in Linz, Austria, was given first right of refusal over the confiscated Rothschild collection, and selected this miniature for inclusion in 1943. Card no. AR 1105c, Bundesdenkmalamt, Vienna, available on the website of the Zentral Depot Karteien online. This miniature was included in the Linz Kunstmuseum list translated by USACA Reparations and Restitutions Branch in 1947, p.97.

[5] Many works of art stored elsewhere by the Nazis were moved to the abandoned salt mines of Alt Aussee in Austria, to be kept safe from wartime bombing. Allied troops recovered the looted artwork at the end of World War II, and established collecting points where the art could be identified for restitution to its rightful owners. This miniature came to the Munich Central Collecting Point in 1945 from Alt Aussee (no. 3362) and was numbered 4713/11. The Munich Central Collecting Point inventory card is held by the Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, Germany (B323/656).