Charlotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy (born Reichenheim), and Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy

The German couple Paul and Charlotte von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy amassed an important art collection in the early decades of the twentieth century. They were early adopters of avant-garde trends such as Cubism, and their patronage also extended to modern architecture and applied arts.

Paul was the eldest son of Ernst and Marie von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. A member of a prominent Jewish family, Paul could count among his ancestors the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the composer Felix Mendelssohn. Paul completed his undergraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford University, and then undertook further studies in law in Berlin and Bonn. In 1902, he joined the family’s banking business, becoming a shareholder in the Mendelssohn & Co. bank (established 1795) located at Jägerstrasse 49-50 in Berlin. That same year he married Charlotte, the daughter of Margarete (born Oppenheim) and Georg Reichenheim, who were both passionate art collectors. In 1903, Charlotte’s father died, making her independently wealthy. Charlotte and Paul shared a love of modern art and design, and in 1909 they commissioned the architect Bruno Paul to remodel and furnish Schloss Börnicke, a manor house in the countryside near Bernau that Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy had received from his father. From 1913 to 1915, Bruno Paul was also engaged to decorate the couple’s Berlin home at Alsenstrasse 3/3a. For both projects, the architect created simple yet luxurious interiors that could accommodate and highlight the couple’s growing art collection.

Bruno Paul may have also advised the couple on purchases. According to the Parisian art dealer Wilhelm Uhde, Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy purchased a number of Henri Rousseau paintings from him while accompanied by Bruno Paul (who was well-known as an early supporter of Rousseau). The Mendelssohn-Bartholdys owned many works by the artist, including Tropical Forest with Monkeys (1910; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.), Portrait of Madam M. (ca. 1896; Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and Portrait of Mr. X (Pierre Loti) (1906; Kunsthaus Zürich). The couple used the services of many well-known art dealers, such as Wilhelm von Bode, Paul Cassirer, Alfred Flechtheim, Paul Rosenberg, and the Parisian galleries Druet and Bernheim-Jeune. Existing correspondence shows that both Paul and Charlotte collected, although it is difficult to establish who purchased particular works as they were both early adopters of modern and avant-garde art. Among the works in their collection were George Braque’s The Table (Still Life with Fan) (1910; Museum of Modern Art, New York) and Little Harbor in Normandy (1909; Art Institute of Chicago), Marie Laurencin’s La toilette des Jeunes Filles (Young Women at their Toilette) (ca. 1911; now lost), Pablo Picasso’s Le Moulin de la Galette (1900; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) and Boy Leading a Horse (1905–6; Museum of Modern Art), and Vincent van Gogh’s Madame Roulin and Her Baby (1888; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). They also owned a version of Van Gogh’s Sunflowers (1888; Sompo Museum of Art, Tokyo) that was on display at Schloss Börnicke, but whose authenticity has been disputed in recent years.

Charlotte was interested in the connection between arts and crafts and was involved in organizing exhibitions that showcased the modern interiors, such as Der gedeckte Tisch (The Well-Laid Table) at the Hohenzollern-Kunstgewerbehaus, Berlin (1912) and an exhibition of forty-five interiors created by society ladies at the Vereinigte Werkstätten für Kunst- und Handwerk AG, Munich (1914). Within these interiors, artworks played an important part, and Charlotte integrated the aforementioned Sunflowers into her display. That same year, Charlotte also began writing for the publications Die Dame and Wieland, the latter edited by Bruno Paul. In her articles, she called for a greater integration of art and design within modern life, criticizing collectors who purchased artworks without striving to properly incorporate them into their interiors.

Charlotte and Paul separated in 1927, and the collection was divided during the divorce proceedings. At least three paintings by Rousseau and one painting by Picasso remained in Charlotte’s possession, and she also inherited at least fourteen works by Paul Cézanne after the death of her mother, the collector Margarete Oppenheim, in 1935. In 1938, Charlotte moved to Switzerland with the second husband, the Count Georg Friedrich Ludwig von Wesdehlen, and began to sell pieces from her collection as her financial situation worsened. Paul also remarried, celebrating his wedding to Elsa Lucy Emmy Lolo von Lavergne-Péguilhen in 1927. At the time of their marriage, Paul’s collection included more than fifty paintings. Following the rise of the Nazi regime from 1933 onward, the family bank was targeted and Paul’s financial situation began to decline. In 1934, he began to sell works from his collection using the services of art dealer Justin Thannhauser, but died shortly after, suffering a heart attack in 1935. The rest of the collection, comprising about forty artworks and ninety engravings, passed to Paul’s widow.

Five Picasso artworks were the subject of a series of lawsuits initiated by Paul’s heirs in 2007 demanding restitution and arguing that Thannhauser profited from Paul’s precarious situation. In the case of Le Moulin de la Galette and Boy Leading a Horse, the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art settled out of court in 2009. That same year, the heirs also reached an agreement with the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation regarding Picasso’s The Absinthe Drinker (Portrait of Angel Fernandez de Soto) (1903; private collection). A Picasso pastel entitled Head of a Woman (1903) was returned to the heirs by the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in 2020 to avoid litigation. Most recently, in 2021, the Bavarian State Painting Collection has refused to refer another disputed work, Picasso’s Madame Soler (1903), to Germany’s national commission for looted art, claiming that the work was not sold by Paul under duress.