Five years after the successful 1925 exhibition of old masters, the Moravian Art Association (Mährischer Kunstverein) decided to hold regular retrospectives, preferably once a year. These shows were intended to introduce the public to paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, examples of Asian art, and applied art objects from private collections in Brno, or more precisely, Moravia. Viktor Oppenheimer (1877–1942), an artist, art critic, and the main initiator and spiritus agens of these events before 1938, announced this intention in his foreword to the catalogue of the first of these exhibitions in 1925. In the autumn of 1930, the show presented a collection of 187 paintings and sculptures by European artists from 1850-1930, most of which were owned by German-speaking private collectors. Apart from a few cases in which the collectors wished to remain completely anonymous, the lenders appear in the catalogue under abbreviations of their names. Most lenders contributed a single artwork to the exhibition, such as the physicians Adolf Leopold Scherbak (1871-1936) and Wilhelm Mager (1871-1935), businessmen Felix Bloch (1873-1941) and Paul Selb (1870-1947), the owner of the well-known photographic factory Rudolf de Sandalo Jr. (1899-1960), and the businessman Franz Tesař. The only exception was Dr. Ludwig Levy (1881-1946), the Chief Rabbi in Brno from 1905 to 1939, who was a prominent collector. The exhibition presented 25 paintings from his collection, including works by Munich painters Heinrich von Zügel, Gabriel von Max, Franz von Stuck, Adolf von Hengeler, Julius Hesse, Julius Hüther, and Carl Schwalbach. There was also a landscape by Alois Kalvoda, a charcoal drawing by Oskar Kokoschka, and a pointillist watercolour by Paul Signac. In his report on the exhibition, the critic František Žákavec emphasized the richness of Levy’s collection and its focus on Munich artists [Žákavec 1931]. He also mentioned three other collections, whose owners have been identified as the industrialist Hugo Hannak (1880–?), the high school professor Berthold König (1878–1952), and a woman collector, Irene Beran (1886–1979) [Slavíček 2016]. These collectors contributed works by prominent French, Belgian, and Austrian painters and sculptors of the 19th century, such as Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Theodore Rousseau, Alexander Gabriel Decamps, Adolphe Joseph Thomas Monticelli, Gustave Courbet, Jean Francois Raffaelli, Eugene Boudin, Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Signac, André Derain, Constantin Meunier, George Minne, Max Liebermann, Franz von Stuck, Ferdinand Hodler, Eugen Jettel, Hans Makart, Tina Blau-Lang, Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele. This core collection was supplemented by numerous examples of contemporary art, such as paintings and sculptures by August Brömse, Eduard Csanko, Hugo Charlemont, Carl Maria Thuma, Emil Orlik, Anton Faistauer, Albin Egger-Lienz, Josef Dobrowski, Franz Barwig, i. e. mostly artists who regularly exhibited with the Mährischer Kunstverein. Czech artists at the exhibition included the painters Joža Uprka, Alois Kalvoda, František Hlavica, and the sculptor Jan Štursa.
Lubomír Slavíček
Works Cited
Žákavec 1931: Ž. [František Žákavec], Výstava obrazů a plastik z brněnského soukromého majetku (1850–1930), UměníIV, 1931, pp. 184–185
Slavíček 2016: Lubomír Slavíček, Irene Beran a ty druhé. Brněnské sběratelky umění německé národnosti před rokem 1939, in: Hana Jordánková (ed.), Alis volat propriis. Sborník příspěvků k životnímu jubileu Ludmily Sulitkové, Brno 2016, pp. 576–595, 686–687
Further Reading
Lubomír Slavíček, Retrospektivní výstavy spolku Mährischer Kunstverein v letech 1925–1945, in: Jana Vránová – Lubomír Slavíček (ed.), 90 let domu umění města Brna. Příběh jednoho domu, Brno 2000, pp. 79–88
Lubomír Slavíček, Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka a druzí. Brněnská sbírka kreseb Irene Beran, Ars linearis VI, 2016, pp. 74–83, 157–162
90 let Domu umění města Brna. Seznam výstav a katalogů, Brno 2000, p. 5, p. 53, no. 91
Gemälde und Plastiken aus Brünner Privatbesitz (1850–1930)
Publisher: Mährischer Kunstverein
Place and year of publication: Brno 1930
Hugo Feigl, Eine interessante Ausstellung in Brünn, Prager Tagblatt LV, 1930, no. 247, 19. 10., p. 9
jpgV. Opp. [Viktor Oppenheimer], Ausstellung aus Brünner Privatbesitz 1850–1930, 1–2, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 476, 12. 10., pp. 8–9; no. 488, 19. 10., p. 8
pdfr. v. [Václav Richter], brněnské výstavy, Lidové noviny XXXVIII, 1930, no. 538, 24. 10, p. 9
pdfŽ. [František Žákavec], Výstava obrazů a plastik z brněnského soukromého majetku (1850–1930), Umění IV, 1931, pp. 184–185
pdfV. Opp. [Viktor Oppenheimer], Aus Brünner Privatbesitz …, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 464, 5. 10., p. 8.
Anonymous author, Ausstellung: Aus Brünner Privatbesitz, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 472, 10. 10., p. 6
Anonymous author, Eine Ausstellung aus Brünner Privatbesitz, Volksfreund L, 1930, no. 239, 10. 10., p. 6
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung „Aus Brünner Privatbesitz“, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 474, 11. 10., p. 7
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung „Aus Brünner Privatbesitz“, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 476, 12. 10., p. 9
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung: Aus Brünner Privatbesitz, Volksfreund L, 1930, no. 243, 15. 10., p. 6
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung „Aus Brünner Privatbesitz“ im Künstlerhaus, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 486, 18. 10., p. 6
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung „Aus Brünner Privatbesitz“ im Künstlerhaus, Volksfreund L, 1930, no. 249, 22. 10., p. 6
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung „Aus Brünner Privatbesitz“ im Künstlerhaus, Tagesbote LXXX, 1930, no. 508, 1. 11., p. 8
Anonymous author, Die Ausstellung „Aus Brünner Privatbesitz“ im Künstlerhaus, Volksfreund L, 1930, no. 257, 1. 11., p. 5
