Schmidt-Rottluff provenance research

The aim of the project is the detailed reconstruction of the provenance of the painting “Zwei Frauen/Frauen im Grünen” (Two Women/Women in Greenery) (1914) by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (oil on canvas, 108 x 87 cm) with a view to a possible restitution.
The Von der Heydt-Museum has uncovered very little information about the origin of the painting to date. It is known that the Städtisches Museum Wuppertal acquired the painting in 1947 from Galerie Alois Faust in Cologne. There is evidence that the painting once belonged to the collection of shoe manufacturer Alfred Hess of Erfurt. When he died in December 1931, this painting and other masterpieces from the collection were transported to Switzerland on the order of Alfred Hess’s widow, Tekla Hess, for exhibition purposes. In 1936/37, Tekla Hess arranged for the painting and other masterpieces from the Hess collection that were stored in Switzerland to be sent to the Kölnischer Kunstverein (Cologne Art Society). To date, it is not known what happened to the painting in the years that followed until it was bought by the Städtisches Museum Wuppertal in 1947, and in particular whether it was confiscated as a result of Nazi persecution in the period 1933–1945. It is this chapter of the painting’s history that now needs to be checked.