Rudolph von Alt

A note about the provenance:

Lots 10, 87, 91 and 92 come from the noteworthy collection of David Goldmann, an Austrian businessman who fled his home country with his family in 1938 after the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany. Goldmann amassed a significant fine and decorative arts collection consisting of Italian, Northern and Austrian paintings as well as Viennese porcelain and furniture. Soon after the Anschluss, the Gestapo deemed Goldmann’s apartment and contents as “enemy property”.¹ The most valuable items of the group were removed and reserved for Hitler’s Führermuseum while the rest were auctioned off by the Dorotheum. 

The above drawing entered Goldmann's collection after World War II during the restitution proceedings. All of his items were approved to leave Austria with the exception of Rudolf von Alt's Self-Portrait² as it was considered a monumental work by the artist and important to Austrian heritage. The agreement that was reached between the Goldmann and the Albertina Museum was for the museum to exchange one of their existing von Alt watercolors with the self-portrait, which is how lot 91 became a part of the collection. 

1. A. Reininghaus, Recollecting. Raub und Restitution, exhibition catalogue, Vienna 2009, p. 133.

2. Watercolor. 30.4 x 23.9 cm. https://sammlungenonline.albertina.at/#/query/507de02b-a3f4-4b35-a4d1-657ce3ce5d80