The painter Max Slevogt was a close friend and artistic advisor to Leo Lewin. Not only did he portray Leo’s wife, Helene Lewin, twice, and design an ex-libris adorning the books in the collector’s library, but he was also the main consultant for the interior decoration of the young couple’s villa. In 1917, Leo Lewin married twenty-year-old Helene Koslowsky, hailing from a merchant family in Breslau. During this time, Slevogt was at the peak of his career. At the onset of World War I, he was sent to the Western Front as the official war painter. Three years later, he returned to Berlin to take over the leadership of the painting class at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin. It was during this period that his friendship with the Lewin couple deepened. For their villa on Acacia Avenue, he designed, among other things, a table with a scene of bacchanalia, executed by the Puhl and Wagner company, a leading producer of glass mosaics. The form was typical of Roman art, and the motif of a procession of dancing putti, women, musicians, and wild animals had an ancient character. The theme of music and dance became the dominant motif in the decoration of the newlyweds’ villa.
In the newly designed interiors, portraits of the collector’s young wife were a must. Slevogt captured the delicate features of Helene Lewin in impressionistic portraits. In 1917, he portrayed her at least three times. In one of these bust portraits, she is depicted in a dark dress. Her arms are covered with the fur of a polar fox, contrasting with the dark framing of her eyes, hair, and black head covering. The silhouette sketched against a neutral background with decisive brushstrokes demonstrates Slevogt’s painterly virtuosity, as he could create a masterful portrait using modest means.
The other two images have a more intimate character. The woman portrayed with her hair pinned up is dressed in a light summer dress with a floral pattern, and pastel plant ornaments decorate the background. The last representation, the smallest in format, is also the most modest – Helene Lewin in a simple green dress gazes attentively at the viewer.
The representative portrait “Helene Lewin” was auctioned at Christie’s in London in 1979. At that time, it was acquired by a private collector who sold it at an auction organized by the same auction house in New York in 2005. The painting reappeared in the antiques market in 2012 at the Lempertz gallery in Cologne, where it reached a price of €92,720.
Painting Information:
oil on canvas, dimensions: 70.2 x 52.5 cm, current storage location unknown.
Literature: Hans Jürgen Imiela, Max Slevogt, Eine Monographie, Berlin 1968, s. 419.
