Portrait of a Lady

Duke of Anhalt, Palace of Dessau, Germany, at least by 1910.{1} (W. A. Luz [1892-1959], Berlin, Germany, by 1937).{2} Hermann Voss [1884-1969];{3} (Julius Böhler, Munich, Germany), by 1953;{4} Purchased by the John Herron Art Institute, Indianapolis, Indiana, now the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, in 1956 (56.73). ------- {1} The painting, lent by the Duke of Anhalt, was included in the Exposition d’Art Ancien: L’Art Belge au XVIIe Siècle, Brussels, June to November 1910 as catalogue no. 245 and identified there as a Portrait of Catherine van Noort. Paintings in aristocratic collections were often sold by their owners in the 1920s and early 1930s for financial gain after the Revolution of 1918.Germany {2} The painting was included in the exhibition “Kaleidoskop” held at the Gemäldegalerie Dr. W.A. Luz, Berlin, in Fall 1937, catalgoue no. 34 (illustration). Wilhelm August Luz was active as a dealer in Berlin from at least 1935 on; see his regular advertisements in the periodical Weltkunst, and the short essay by Sibylle Ehringhaus, “Galerie Dr. W. A. Luz,” in Christine Fischer-Defroy, ed., Gute Geschäfte: Kunsthandel in Berlin, 1933-1945, Berlin 2011, pp. 67-72. {3} Correspondence between the IMA and Julius Böhler in May and June 1956 notes that Böhler acquired the painting directly from Hermann Voss and that it was “in Voss’ possession during the war.” This has not yet been verified, but the painting was submitted to the Art Loss Register database and cleared from suspicion of having been looted. The art historian Herman Voss is, of course, a controversial figure, due to his appointment as Director of the Linz Special Commission during WWII. {4} See “Notable Works of Art Now on the Market,” Burlington Magazine, volume 95, No. 609 (December 1953), pl. 27.