‘Thanks to Cassirer, several outstanding works from the Dutch school have passed into private ownership.… Apart from the Primitives, Rubens’ work has become the company’s specialty, and in the field of drawings, they dominate the market almost exclusively alongside Frits Lugt and Dr. N. Beets.’1
Amsterdamsche Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer & Co. N. V. was a prominent gallery and venue in the international art market, specialising in early Netherlandish and German art, the Old Masters and French Impressionism. It also played an important role in safeguarding significant Jewish collections.
At the height of German inflation in 1923, the Berlin-based Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer opened a branch in Amsterdam: Amsterdamsche Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer & Co. N. V. at Keizersgracht 109.2 While the founder and art dealer Paul Cassirer (1871–1926), together with Dr Walter Feilchenfeldt (1894–1953) and Dr Grete Ring (1887–1952), oversaw operations in Berlin, the art historian Dr Helmuth Lütjens (1893–1987) was recruited to head the Amsterdam branch [Figs. 1-3].
From the outset, the Amsterdam branch dealt in a wide range of art, from the Old Master paintings and drawings by Rembrandt and Rubens to key figures of French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, such as Edouard Manet [Fig. 10], Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec [Fig. 18] and Honoré Daumier [Fig. 16].
Prior to taking the helm at Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer, Lütjens [Fig. 4] had worked under the art historian Max J. Friedländer (1867–1958) at the Prints Department of Berlin Kupferstichkabinett from 1920 to 1923. With the expertise he acquired there, he advised the German banker Franz Koenigs (1881–1941) [Fig. 5] — whose bank Rhodius Koenigs Handel Maatschappij was located a stone’s throw away from the gallery at Keizersgracht 117-121 — with building a comprehensive collection of Old Master drawings. While at the gallery, Lütjens established close relationships to many artists of the time, including Oskar Kokoschka a frequent travel companion from 1927 to 1929 [Fig. 6], and Max Beckmann [Fig.4], who found refuge with the Lütjens family in 1943.
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Paul Cassirer’s tragic death in 1926 had left leadership of the company operations to Ring and Feilchenfeldt, who helped steer the course in the tumultuous years that followed.
Following the Nazis’ rise to power on 30 January 1933, the centre of gravity of the Cassirer business began to shift to Amsterdam. Feilchenfeldt relocated there in March [Fig. 8] that same year, shortly after the Berlin Reichstag fire [Fig. 7], while Ring continued managing the business from Berlin until its liquidation in 1937 before opening a branch in London in 1938. From 1937 to 1939, the Amsterdam office served as the company headquarters. Feilchenfeldt emigrated to Switzerland just before the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, while Lütjens, who had acquired Dutch citizenship in 1939, continued to run the gallery.
As conditions worsened in Germany, the Amsterdam branch became an increasingly vital conduit for Jewish collectors escaping Germany. The gallery helped preserve private collections and facilitated the export of artworks, often through strategic loans to Dutch institutions.
Throughout the 1930s, Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer & Co. N.V. took part in a number of high-profile exhibitions in the Netherlands, lending works to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum and Museum Boijmans. One such example was the 1933–34 exhibition at Museum Boijmans, Schilderijen van Delacroix tot Cézanne en Vincent van Gogh (Paintings from Delacroix to Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh) [Fig. 9], which included Edouard Manet’s Tête de chien “Bob” [Fig. 10] from the collection of Estella Katzenellenbogen (1886–1991).
Like many other works, the Manet was not returned to Germany after the exhibition. If the owner was safely abroad after the exhibition ended, the works were sent to them. Otherwise, the works remained with Cassirer and were returned to their owners after the war.
Just a few months after the Rotterdam exhibition, Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer contributed to the major retrospective Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlansch’ Bezit (Italian Art in Dutch Possession) at the Stedelijk Museum [Fig. 11], which was co-initiated by Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940).
The venue lent four Old Master works by Jacopo da Pontormo, Salario II, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Luca di Tommè. In 1936, as a member of the Vereeningen van Handelaren in Oude Kunst in Nederland (Association of Dealers in Old Dutch Art), the gallery showed three paintings and nine drawings, including six by Rembrandt, at the Rijksmuseum [Fig. 12] during the exhibition marking the institution’s 25th anniversary [Fig. 13]. Lütjens, along with Goudstikker, Bernard Houthakker (1884-1963) and Dr. O. Hirschmann (1889-1962) helped select the drawings [Fig. 14].
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Paul Cassirer’s tragic death in 1926 had left leadership of the company operations to Ring and Feilchenfeldt, who helped steer the course in the tumultuous years that followed.
Following the Nazis’ rise to power on 30 January 1933, the centre of gravity of the Cassirer business began to shift to Amsterdam. Feilchenfeldt relocated there in March [Fig. 8] that same year, shortly after the Berlin Reichstag fire [Fig. 7], while Ring continued managing the business from Berlin until its liquidation in 1937 before opening a branch in London in 1938. From 1937 to 1939, the Amsterdam office served as the company headquarters. Feilchenfeldt emigrated to Switzerland just before the German occupation of the Netherlands in 1940, while Lütjens, who had acquired Dutch citizenship in 1939, continued to run the gallery.
As conditions worsened in Germany, the Amsterdam branch became an increasingly vital conduit for Jewish collectors escaping Germany. The gallery helped preserve private collections and facilitated the export of artworks, often through strategic loans to Dutch institutions.
Throughout the 1930s, Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer & Co. N.V. took part in a number of high-profile exhibitions in the Netherlands, lending works to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum and Museum Boijmans. One such example was the 1933–34 exhibition at Museum Boijmans, Schilderijen van Delacroix tot Cézanne en Vincent van Gogh (Paintings from Delacroix to Cézanne and Vincent Van Gogh) [Fig. 9], which included Edouard Manet’s Tête de chien “Bob” [Fig. 10] from the collection of Estella Katzenellenbogen (1886–1991).
Like many other works, the Manet was not returned to Germany after the exhibition. If the owner was safely abroad after the exhibition ended, the works were sent to them. Otherwise, the works remained with Cassirer and were returned to their owners after the war.
Just a few months after the Rotterdam exhibition, Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer contributed to the major retrospective Italiaansche Kunst in Nederlansch’ Bezit (Italian Art in Dutch Possession) at the Stedelijk Museum [Fig. 11], which was co-initiated by Jacques Goudstikker (1897–1940).
The venue lent four Old Master works by Jacopo da Pontormo, Salario II, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and Luca di Tommè. In 1936, as a member of the Vereeningen van Handelaren in Oude Kunst in Nederland (Association of Dealers in Old Dutch Art), the gallery showed three paintings and nine drawings, including six by Rembrandt, at the Rijksmuseum [Fig. 12] during the exhibition marking the institution’s 25th anniversary [Fig. 13]. Lütjens, along with Goudstikker, Bernard Houthakker (1884-1963) and Dr. O. Hirschmann (1889-1962) helped select the drawings [Fig. 14].
‘From that moment on, it was clear to Feilchen[feldt] that there was no longer any security in a country where such arbitrariness could occur without police intervention and without legal consequences. And this was not an isolated case; similar experiences were commonplace.’
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‘The Netherlands is poor in works of French art from the early 19th century, and also poor in Impressionist paintings. Only the Barbizon school is well represented in both museums and collections.… If we have succeeded in conveying a picture of the inexhaustible wealth of 19th-century French art, it is thanks to the generous cooperation of museums, collectors, and art dealers.… Dr W. Feilchenfeldt, whose knowledge and library were always at our disposal.’
In 1938, two major exhibitions showcased the venue’s reach. More or less at the same time as the ground-breaking London exhibition Twentieth Century German Art in July, conceived as a reaction to the Nazis’ campaign against ‘degenerate art’, the Hoonderd Jaar Fransche Kunst (100 Years of French Art) [Fig. 15] show at the Stedelijk Museum tracked the development of modern art through the 19th century.
Among the loans were two Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corots, an Alfred Sisley and an Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, in addition to Honoré Daumier’s Fumeur et buveur d’absinthe [Fig. 16], from the German-Jewish collector Dr Alexander Lewin (1879–1942). After the exhibition ended, the work remained in Amsterdam, in the depot of Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer. Lewin emigrated to Switzerland later that year and bequeathed the work to his daughter Alice J. Kurz (1908–2000) who was able to retain it through the end of World War II with the help of the gallery.
The painting had originally been purchased at Christie’s London on 29 April 1927, from the collection of Sir James Murray by M. Knoedler & Co., Inc. and sold shortly thereafter to Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer in Berlin. It later came into the possession of Lewin.
Concurrently with the Stedelijk Museum exhibition, Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer organised the show Fransche Meesters uit de XIXe eeuw (French Masters of the 19th Century) [Fig. 17], which featured works on paper by the same artists. Among them was Toulouse-Lautrec’s Portret van Miss May Milton [Fig. 18], which was acquired at the exhibition by gallery client Koenigs.
‘Amsterdam isn’t a bad place to stay for a while.’
In 1940, Lütjens met Max Beckmann [Fig. 19] and his wife Mathilde (1904–1986), known as ‘Quappi’, in Zaandvort at the home of the collector Eduard von der Heydt (1882–1964), who had emigrated to Amsterdam in July 1937. Though Cassirer had exhibited Beckmann’s work in 1908, there had been no formal agreement. Lütjens grew closer to the artist after their first encounter, and in 1943 Beckmann entrusted his works to Lütjens, fearing scrutiny from the Dutch Cultural Chamber after his art had been deemed ‘degenerate’ in Germany and removed from museums.
In September 1944, fearing reprisals as German citizens, Beckmann and his wife vacated their apartment at Rokin 85 [Fig. 20] and moved to Keizersgracht 109, where the Lütjens family lived. During this time, Beckmann created his large-format family portrait of Helmuth, wife Anneliese and daughter Nelly Lütjens.[Fig. 21]
Friedländer [Fig. 22], Lütjens’ former employer at the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett and a close friend of Grete Ring, also found refuge at Keizersgracht 109 after escaping Germany in 1939. Unable to publish under the Nazi regime because of his Jewish background, Friedländer was introduced by Feilchenfeldt to his friends at the publishing house A. W. Sijthoff's Uitgeversmij N. V. in Leiden. They republished volumes 1-11 (from 1934 onward) and issued volumes 12-14 (from 1935 onward) of Friedländer’s magnum opus Die Altniederländische Malerei (Old Dutch Painting), still considered a standard reference today.
From 1898 to 1939, the Paul Cassirer company was among the most influential forces in the international art market. Even after relocating from Berlin, Amsterdamsche Kunsthandel Paul Cassirer & Co. N. V. retained its stature. The business closed in 2011.
Rahel E. Feilchenfeldt, Markus Brandis. Paul Cassirer Verlag. Eine kommentierte Bibliographie. Bruno und Paul Cassirer Verlag 1898-1901. Paul Cassirer Verlag 1908–1933. München, 2002, 153–161
Marianne Feilchenfeldt Breslauer. Bilder meines Lebens – Erinnerungen. Wädenswil, 2010, 139–140; 95
Christina Feilchenfeldt. The Paul Cassirer Gallery (1933–1945): Berlin Amsterdam – London, in : Ines Rotermund-Reynard (Hg.) Echoes of Exile. Moscow Archives and the Arts in Paris, 1933–1945, Berlin, 2014, 131–133.
Grete Ring. Kunsthändlerin der Moderne. Von Cézanne und Renoir bis Liebermann und Kokoschka, Berlin. Liebermann-Villa am Wannsee, 2023
Christina Feilchenfeldt. Das Paul Cassirer & Walter Feilchenfeldt Archiv, Zürich. In: Peter Wehrle (Hg.) Provenienzforschung und Kunsthandel, Karlsruhe, 2023, 83–93.
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