Edvard Munch, “Seaside Landscape”

Edvard Munch, “Seaside Landscape”

The villa on Acacia Avenue became a frequent meeting place for artists whom Leo Lewin befriended. Both painters, whose works formed the nucleus of his collection – Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann – were guests at his home. Starting from 1917, the interiors quickly filled with artworks. Some of them, the collector acquired or commissioned directly from the artists. Other purchases were made through the Paul Cassirer gallery in Berlin, where he bought two canvases by Edvard Munch, sculptures by August Gaul, and several paintings by Liebermann.

Cassirer was born a decade before Leo Lewin in Breslau and, like him, came from a Jewish family. His father, Louis Cassirer, similar to the collector’s father, Carl Lewin, was a producer of textile goods. After completing his studies in art history in Munich, Paul Cassirer, along with his cousin Bruno Cassirer, opened an art salon in 1898. It was located on the ground floor of the family’s house on Viktoriastrasse in Berlin. The Cassirer gallery soon became one of the most important auction houses in the city, its activities only interrupted by the Nazis coming to power.

Leo Lewin and Bruno Cassirer, who was a year older than Paul Cassirer, were also connected by a passion for horse breeding. Lewin leased a horse stud in the Rhineland town of Erftstadt, which he successfully expanded, making it one of the largest stables in Germany. Bruno Cassirer managed the Gestüt stud. The racehorses bred by Lewin and Cassirer found their way to one of the most famous racing stables in Weimar Germany, owned by millionaire Emil Perk. Lewin’s acquaintance with the Cassirer cousins proved to be crucial for Leo Lewin when furnishing his villa in Breslau. The commission for the sculptures in the hall was given to Ernst Barlach, whom Lewin had met through Paul Cassirer. During an economic crisis, the art dealer organized an auction where Leo Lewin sold part of his collection.

One of the works that went through this process was Edvard Munch’s “Seaside Landscape.” The canvas was exhibited at an exhibition in 1921 at Paul Cassirer’s gallery, where the Breslau collector Leo Lewin acquired it. The painting was auctioned in 1927 in the same salon, and it was purchased for the museum in Basel through the Thannhauser gallery.

Painting Information:

oil on canvas, dimensions: 121 x 160.5 cm, current location: Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Literature:

Gert Woll, Edvard Munch. Complete Paintings, London 2008, t. 3, s. 1174.