European & British Art
European & British Art
Eduard Gaertner
The Water Mill at Heilsberg
Lot Closed
July 14, 01:05 PM GMT
Estimate
50,000 - 70,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Eduard Gaertner
German
1801-1877
The Water Mill at Heilsberg
signed and indistinctly dated E. Gaertner 1846 lower right
oil on canvas
Unframed: 54 by 88cm., 21¼ by 34¾in.
Framed: 64 by 97cm., 25 by 38in.
Leo Kern, Berlin
Hedwig Steinberg (née Kern, daughter of the above), Berlin (by 1936)
Ronald Philip Stanton (born Steinberg, son of the above), New Salem, New York (his estate, by 2016)
Hedwig Steinberg (née Kern, daughter of the above), Berlin (by 1936)
Ronald Philip Stanton (born Steinberg, son of the above), New Salem, New York (his estate, by 2016)
Irmgard Wirth, Eduard Gaertner: der Berliner Architekturmaler, Frankfurt, 1979, no. 75, p. 235 (erroneously dated 1847)
Berlin, Berliner Akademie-Ausstellung, 1846, no. 210 (as Ansicht einer Wassermühle bei Heilsberg in Preußen)
Berlin, Die Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, 1928, no. 1209
Berlin, Die Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, 1928, no. 1209
This rediscovered work is, in Börsch-Supan's words, an 'exceptional' example of Gaertner's landscape painting, to which he increasingly turned after 1840.
The view is of the mill serving the fourteenth century Ordensburg (castle) of Heilsberg in East Prussia, today Lidzbark Warminski in Russia. The mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1914 and rebuilt, still stands just to the north of the castle, at the confluence of the rivers Simser and Alle.
We are grateful to Professor Helmut Börsch-Supan for his assistance in cataloguing this work.
Ronald P. Stanton (1928-2016)
Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, Ronald P. Stanton was one of New York’s most prominent businessmen and philanthropists. In reaction to the worsening situation in Germany in the early 1930s, his mother Hedwig ‘Hedi’ Kern had the foresight to smuggle money to Switzerland. By April 1937, nine-year-old Ronald and his mother were able to flee Europe for New York City, shipping abroad only a few items, presumably including the present work.
Stanton graduated from the City College of New York to become a trainee at Interore, the International Ore & Fertilizer Corporation. In 1950 he was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War, and, following service, returned to Interore where he went on to become an executive vice-president. In 1965, setting out on his own, he founded the hugely successful Transammonia (now called Trammo) — a merchandising and trading company that eventually became the largest privately-owned firm in New York.
Throughout his life he embraced philanthropy and service, giving generously to the arts, education, health care and Congregation Shearith Israel, America’s oldest Jewish congregation, where he and his mother had found safe haven upon arriving in America. He also filled his homes on Fifth Avenue and in North Salem with an impeccable collection of Impressionist and modern art, Post-War and contemporary sculpture, Asian art, period European furniture and 19th-century painting, acquiring works by Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Isamu Noguchi, Pierre Bonnard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henry Moore and Henri Matisse, many of which were sold at Christie's New York in 2016.
Ronald Stanton affected countless lives through his donations, as reflected in his being honoured as a Chevalier of France’s Legion of Honour, receiving the Museum of Modern Art’s David Rockefeller Award, and being awarded an honorary degree from Yeshiva University. These honours were a consequence of his striving, in his words, to ‘make a contribution to worthwhile things so that your own existence has meaning.’ By that standard, Ronald Stanton’s was a life that was rich with meaning.
The view is of the mill serving the fourteenth century Ordensburg (castle) of Heilsberg in East Prussia, today Lidzbark Warminski in Russia. The mill, which was destroyed by fire in 1914 and rebuilt, still stands just to the north of the castle, at the confluence of the rivers Simser and Alle.
We are grateful to Professor Helmut Börsch-Supan for his assistance in cataloguing this work.
Ronald P. Stanton (1928-2016)
Born in Wiesbaden, Germany, Ronald P. Stanton was one of New York’s most prominent businessmen and philanthropists. In reaction to the worsening situation in Germany in the early 1930s, his mother Hedwig ‘Hedi’ Kern had the foresight to smuggle money to Switzerland. By April 1937, nine-year-old Ronald and his mother were able to flee Europe for New York City, shipping abroad only a few items, presumably including the present work.
Stanton graduated from the City College of New York to become a trainee at Interore, the International Ore & Fertilizer Corporation. In 1950 he was drafted into the United States Army during the Korean War, and, following service, returned to Interore where he went on to become an executive vice-president. In 1965, setting out on his own, he founded the hugely successful Transammonia (now called Trammo) — a merchandising and trading company that eventually became the largest privately-owned firm in New York.
Throughout his life he embraced philanthropy and service, giving generously to the arts, education, health care and Congregation Shearith Israel, America’s oldest Jewish congregation, where he and his mother had found safe haven upon arriving in America. He also filled his homes on Fifth Avenue and in North Salem with an impeccable collection of Impressionist and modern art, Post-War and contemporary sculpture, Asian art, period European furniture and 19th-century painting, acquiring works by Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin, Isamu Noguchi, Pierre Bonnard, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henry Moore and Henri Matisse, many of which were sold at Christie's New York in 2016.
Ronald Stanton affected countless lives through his donations, as reflected in his being honoured as a Chevalier of France’s Legion of Honour, receiving the Museum of Modern Art’s David Rockefeller Award, and being awarded an honorary degree from Yeshiva University. These honours were a consequence of his striving, in his words, to ‘make a contribution to worthwhile things so that your own existence has meaning.’ By that standard, Ronald Stanton’s was a life that was rich with meaning.