Heinrich Thannhauser Explained

Heinrich Thannhauser (born February 16, 1859, in Hürben, today a district of Krumbach (Swabia); died 1934 on the German-Swiss border) was a German gallery owner and art collector. As an art dealer, he was one of the most important promoters of early Expressionist art in Germany.

Life

The Jewish Thannhauser family came from Mönchsdeggingen. Heinrich Thannhauser first learned the profession of a tailor. He founded his Munich Modern Gallery (Moderne Galerie)in 1904.^[1] At first he exhibited the artworks of French Impressionists such as Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas and Paul Gauguin. Later works by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were added.

In 1909, Thannhauser separated from his partner Franz Josef Brakl and continued to run the gallery under the name Galerie Thannhauser.^[2] The first exhibition of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München took place in the Arco-Palais in the same year. In 1911 he began collaborating with Der Blaue Reiter.^[3] In 1918 he had himself painted in Berlin simultaneously by Lovis Corinth and by Max Liebermann; the one he sat for a portrait in the morning, the other in the afternoon.

In 1920 his nephew Siegfried Rosengart opened a branch of the gallery in Lucerne.^[4]

In 1934 in attempting to flee from the Nazis to Switzerland, Thannhauser died of a stroke at the border.

Family

His son Justin Thannhauser, who was also an art dealer, established branches in Lucerne (1919) and Berlin (1927). The parent company in the Arco-Palais, Theatinerstraße 7 in Munich, was dissolved in 1928.

In 1937, the National Socialists confiscated the holdings. Justin Thannhauser emigrated to Paris, where he ran a gallery until 1941. Its inventory of artworks was confiscated during the Nazi occupation of Paris. Justin Thannhauser managed to escape to New York, where he continued to deal in art. In 1963 Justin Thannhauser donated his private collection as well as that of his father, Heinrich, to the Guggenheim Museum, New York, where a room commemorates him.^[5]

Heinrich Thannhauser's daughter, Trude Thannhauser Beyer, also collected art.^[6]

Literature

• Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau: Die Moderne Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser in München. In: Henrike Junge (Hrsg.): Avantgarde und Publikum: Zur Rezeption avantgardistischer Kunst in Deutschland 1905–1933. Böhlau, Köln, Weimar, Wien 1992.
• Thannhauser. Händler, Sammler, Stifter. Hrsg. v. Zentralarchiv des internationalen Kunsthandels e. V. ZADIK und SK Stiftung Kultur der Sparkasse KölnBonn. Sediment – Mitteilungen zur Geschichte des Kunsthandels, 11. Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nürnberg 2006
• Emily D. Bilski: Die „Moderne Galerie“ von Heinrich Thannhauser / The „Moderne Galerie“ of Heinrich Thannhauser. Sammelbilder / Collecting Images, 6. Minerva, München 2008. (Zur gleichnamigen Ausstellung. Jüdisches Museum München, 30. Januar 2008 – 25. Mai 2008.)

See also

• Thannhauser Galleries
• Max G. Bollag
• Justin Thannhauser

External links

• • Dokumente der Thannhauser-Galerien: Aus dem Zentralarchiv 27. bei FAZ.NET
• Beschreibung der Galerie im Arco-Palais:

April 1910, S. 13 (online bei ANNO).Vorlage:ANNO/Wartung/sus (Folgeseiten 14 und 15)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Moderne Galerie. 2022-02-06. www.metmuseum.org. Heinrich Thannhauser (1859–1935) opened the Moderne Galerie in 1909, in an ornate space in the Arco Palais, a grand, eighteenth-century Rococo-style building on Munich’s Theatinerstrasse.
2. Web site: Galerie Heinrich Thannhauser, Moderne. 2022-02-06. www.nga.gov. Heinrich Thannhauser [1859-1935] opened his gallery in the Spring of 1909 in the Arco Palais on Theatinerstrasse in Munich, after having been an associate of F.J. Brakl in Munich from 1906. The first exhibitions were of the impressionist painters, followed by exhibitions including modern artists such as Kandinsky, Braque, Picasso, Roualt, and Vlaminck.
3. Web site: Portrait of the Art Dealer Heinrich Thannhauser Kimbell Art Museum. 2022-02-06. kimbellart.org. en. Heinrich Thannhauser, founded a gallery in Munich that hosted a landmark exhibition of more than 90 works by Vincent van Gogh in 1908. Three years later, he organized the first exhibition of the Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”) with artists Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. The first comprehensive exhibition outside France of the works of Pablo Picasso followed in 1913..
4. News: Riding. Alan. 2003-09-02. On a Swiss Lake, a Father-Daughter Art Dream Lives. en-US. The New York Times. 2022-02-06. https://web.archive.org/web/20141209181213/https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/02/arts/on-a-swiss-lake-a-father-daughter-art-dream-lives.html. 2014-12-09. 0362-4331. Born in Germany in 1894, Siegfried Rosengart came here in 1920 to open a gallery on behalf of his uncle, Heinrich Thannhauser, who also had galleries in Munich and Berlin..
5. Web site: Thannhauser Collection. 2022-02-06. The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. en-US.
6. Web site: Portrait of the Art Dealer Heinrich Thannhauser Kimbell Art Museum. 2022-02-06. kimbellart.org. en.