Portrait of the Painter Franz Radziwill, 1928

ArtistOtto Dix, Gera 1891–1969 Singen

Tempera, oil and sand on plywood

(H x W)80 × 60 cm

Status

on display, room 022

About the work"I’d like to paint you, Franz," Dix is said to have told his colleague one day, before warning him: "But you won’t be handsome in my work." Dix was true to his word, as evidenced by Radziwill’s thinning hair, protruding eyes and thick nose. Radziwill’s hands awkwardly clasp a drawing rail as a sign of his profession. The National Socialists confiscated the disfiguring portrait in 1937 and showed it at the propaganda exhibition "Degenerate Art". It was also depicted in the exhibition catalogue as an example of the "barbarism of representation" in modern art. The work was reacquired for the Kunstpalast in 1958.

AccessionAcquisition 1958

Provenance1928 - Juli 1937 Kunstsammlungen der Stadt Düsseldorf (heute Kunstpalast) angekauft von der Galerie Ludwig Schames, Frankfurt a.M.; Juli 1937 Deutsches Reich, Reichsministerium für Volksaufklärung und Propaganda, Berlin, als "entartet" beschlagnahmt (EK-Nr. 16181); ab 1938 - ? Schloss Schönhausen eingelagert als "international verwertbare Kunst"; [...]; mind. 1953 Dr. Conrad Doebbeke, Berlin; [...]; 28.10.1958 zurückerworben vom Kunsthaus Lempertz, Köln, Auktion 451, Los 79

Inventory number0.1958.5427

Contact

sammlung@kunstpalast.de

Permalink

https://sammlung.kunstpalast.de/en/objects/41736/bildnis-des-malers-franz-radziwill

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