Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer (also known as Galerie Paul Cassirer or Kunstanstalt Paul Cassirer, formerly Kunstsalon Bruno & Paul Cassirer)

The Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer assumed a leading role in promoting French and German Impressionism as well as a younger generation of Expressionist artists in Berlin. The gallery represented the Berlin Secessionists, and French artists, notably Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. It was one of the first venues in Germany to display Cubist artworks.

The art dealer and critic Paul Cassirer (1871–1926) was the fourth child of the Jewish entrepreneur Louis Cassirer and his wife Emilie (born Schiffer). In 1893, Paul relocated to Munich where he studied art history. His interests, however, largely lay in writing and publishing. He joined the staff of the satirical journal Simplicissimus and also worked for the art magazine Blätter für die Kunst. Together with his cousin Bruno Cassirer, he founded the Berlin-based art venue and publishing house Bruno & Paul Cassirer, Kunst- und Verlagsanstalt in September 1898 at Victoriastrasse 35; the company quickly advanced as one of the city’s leading galleries for contemporary art. Thanks to their involvement with the Berlin Secessionists—both Bruno and Paul acted as secretaries of the artist society—the duo rose in standing within the local art scene. In 1901, their partnership ended, and Paul led the art venue on his own while Bruno took over the publishing house. The newly named Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer would continue to organize exhibitions of such German avant-garde artists as Max Beckmann, Lovis Corinth, Ferdinand Hodler, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Liebermann, Walter Leistikow, Max Slevogt, and Wilhelm Trübner alongside presentations of French artists including such painters as Paul Cézanne, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Honoré Daumier, Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley. From 1901 until the First World War, Cassirer also assumed the crucial role of promoting Van Gogh’s work in Germany hosting not only frequent exhibitions of his work but also advocating for it by encouraging its critical appreciation at a time when it was perceived as too vanguard. His important role was confirmed in 1906 by the Deutsche Künstlerbund, the German national artist society, which elected Cassirer as a member, an honor normally not awarded to art dealers. By 1910, he had established himself as one of the leading gallerists in Europe and, two years later, expanded the gallery to two floors.

Among the Kunstsalon’s numerous clients were such renowned collectors as Edouard Arnold, Otto Krebs, Josef Müller, Oskar Reinhart, and Hugo Reisinger, as well as museums including the Kunsthalle Bremen and the Kunsthalle Mannheim. The events organized at the gallery offered many local and foreign intellectuals and artists a meeting place for regular dialogue and exchange. In addition to his commercial activities, Cassirer also organized exhibitions with the sole goal of educating the public. Cassirer also acted as a mentor to younger, aspiring dealers such as Alfred Flechtheim, who benefitted from his encouragement and support before and after the First World War. During the war, Cassirer co-organized (with fellow art dealer and auctioneer Hugo Helbing) an auction of Flechtheim’s stock of modern art on June 5, 1917. After the war, the Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer provided Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, the prominent German-born dealer who had recently returned to France, with a space to present the inventory of his new Parisian Galerie Simon in Berlin.

War and inflation greatly affected the Kunstsalon’s operation and inventory. In 1916, Leo Blumenreich became a partner in Cassirer’s business. After Blumenreich’s departure in 1923, other members of the Cassirer staff—Grete Ring, an art historian and dealer as well as Max Liebermann’s niece, and Walter Feilchenfeldt, an art dealer and publicist who had worked at the gallery since 1919—joined as new partners.

After Cassirer’s death by suicide in 1926, Ring and Feilchenfeldt assumed joint management of the gallery. Exhibitions became less frequent and auctions, which had begun in 1916, became a greater focus.

Between 1932 and 1933, with the rise of Germany’s National Socialist party, Ring and Feilchenfeldt, together with Flechtheim, organized three final exhibitions that comprised over four hundred modern artworks. Ring and Feilchenfeldt liquidated the Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer in 1937 in order to prevent its “Aryanization” and moved its assets and stock to Amsterdam, where Cassirer had operated a branch since 1923. Feilchenfeldt continued to run the Amsterdam branch, called Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer, under the directorship of Helmuth Lütjens. It remained in business until 2011. Ring, on the other hand, managed the Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer as a single proprietor business until 1938, the year she immigrated to London. There, she opened a new business named Paul Cassirer Limited, which operated between 1938 and 1975.