Berlin. Cosmopolite
Felicie and Carl Bernstein and the Beginnings of Impressionism in Germany
The story of Felicie (1849–1908) and Carl (1842–1894) Bernstein is told for the first time in this exhibition. As important art collectors and cultural figures, they significantly shaped the discourse and reception of modern art in the imperial city of Berlin. In the summer of 1882, the Russian-Jewish couple acquired a remarkable group of French Impressionist paintings in Paris and returned with them to their home in Berlin. These were the first Impressionist works to enter a collection in Germany.
The Bernsteins maintained a close friendship with Max and Martha Liebermann, and this relationship exerted an important influence on the painter. His admiration for their art collection intensified his interest in French Impressionism—both as an artist and later as a collector.
With their family connections in Paris and their passion for French art and literature, Felicie and Carl Bernstein brought international flair and cosmopolitan ideas to a quite traditional Berlin. As Francophiles during the decades following the Franco-Prussian War, the Bernsteins served as unofficial ambassadors of French culture in Germany.
Carl, a brilliant scholar of Roman law, was born in Odessa, and studied in Germany. Felicie, née Rosenthal, was born in Saint Petersburg, where the couple met and had hoped to live. When antisemitism in Russia prevented Carl’s professional advancement, they settled in Berlin in 1873. Here, they hosted a lively weekly salon that attracted a diverse circle of German and international artists, writers, academics, and museum curators. The Bernsteins’ art collection, and the conversations that it inspired, had a lasting impact on Berlin’s cultural scene, far beyond the walls of their elegant home.
Thanks to generous loans from museums and private collections, it has been possible to reunite selected works from their collection for the first time, and to rediscover the vanished world of Felicie and Carl Bernstein.
[In the Showcase]
A Memorial in Word and Image
On the eve of the First World War, Carl and Felicie Bernstein. Reminiscences by their Friends, was published in Dresden as a heartfelt tribute to the deceased couple and a testament to their abiding influence. This publication was organized by Georg Treu (1843-1921), a classical archaeologist and director of the Dresden Sculpture Collection, who had first met Carl during their student days. Treu remained a life-long friend of the couple and served as co-executor of Felicie’s estate. Before her apartment was liquidated, he commissioned photographs of the interiors and selected paintings. He published these valuable images along with personal recollections by members of the Bernsteins’ circle that describe their friendships with the couple and reflect upon the importance of their art collection. Among the authors were painter Max Liebermann, the influential museum director Wilhelm Bode, Hugo von Tschudi, former director of the Berlin Nationalgalerie and later director of the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, and Danish literary critic and writer Georg Brandes.
This publication remains the indispensable source for any study of Felicie and Carl Bernstein. It not only preserves the memory of two extraordinary individuals but also impressively documents the beginnings of the reception of French Impressionism in Germany.
[Wall Citations]
“Conversations with far-reaching significance about art or other intellectual areas took place in this salon.”
Sabine Lepsius, 1913
“I saw M. and Mme. Bernstein again, who are not only the most artistic people here, but who, moreover, are so gracious as not to notice my lack of sociability.”
Jules Laforgue, 1883
The Bernstein Circle
The cosmopolitan atmosphere, lively conversation, generous hospitality, and Impressionist collection attracted an illustrious circle to the Bernstein home. The Bernsteins, together with their collection and circle of friends, represent a paradigm of how works of art are loved and shared with others.
Among the Bernsteins’ regular guests were leading intellectuals and art world figures: the historian Theodor Mommsen, the Danish writer Georg Brandes, and the painters Sabine and Reinhold Lepsius, and Max Liebermann. Museum directors and curators from Berlin, such as Wilhelm Bode and Hugo von Tschudi—met their Dresden colleagues Georg Treu and Max Lehrs at the Bernstein salon. The Franco-Uruguayan poet Jules Laforgue, reader at the court of the German Empress Augusta, was introduced into the circle by Carl Bernstein’s cousin, Charles Ephrussi.
The Bernstein collection provided fertile ground for some of the earliest commentaries in Europe on Impressionism, such as Jules Laforgue’s canonical text. Georg Brandes, writing in the Scandinavian press, noted that Berlin artists initially reacted to the works with “astonishment, almost consternation.” Yet Brandes accurately predicted that French Impressionist paintings would “provide a useful element of fermentation” for German painters, which, indeed, proved to be the case.
While Berlin artists such as Adolph Menzel rejected modern French painting, Max Liebermann and Max Klinger were enthusiastic about the Bernsteins’ Impressionist paintings and drew inspiration from them for their own art. Moreover, the collection served as a catalyst for conversations with far-reaching consequences for modern art in Germany. Sabine Lepsius later recalled that the discussions held in the salon contributed significantly to the founding of the Berlin Secession in 1899.
After Carl’s death in 1894, Felicie Bernstein continued to host a salon, both maintaining and expanding her circle. She supported Georg Treu’s purchases for the sculpture collection in Dresden, and aided Hugo von Tschudi in his acquisitions of French Impressionists for the National Gallery in Berlin. At the Villa Romana in Florence, established by Max Klinger, Felicie endowed stipends for young German artists in memory of her sister-in-law, Therese Bernstein—further testimony to her enduring commitment to art.
[In the Showcase]
Friendships Around Art
From their student days, Carl Bernstein and Georg Treu shared many interests. Georg Treu, like Felicie Bernstein, was born in St. Petersburg. In 1882 he was appointed director of the Dresden sculpture collection, where over the years he put together one of the most significant collections of modern sculpture in Germany.
Treu was particularly interested in the use of polychromy in sculpture. He focused mainly on contemporary artists and their attempts to revive polychrome techniques. To this end, he published his lecture “Should We Paint Our Statues?” in Berlin in 1884, which he dedicated “to his friend, Dr. jur. Carl Bernstein, […] in longstanding love and loyalty.” Max Klinger’s later polychrome sculptures were inspired, in part, by his conversations with members of the Bernstein circle.
In 1885, the Berlin National Gallery presented a comprehensive exhibition of polychrome sculpture. Among the exhibited works were two portraits of women lent by Jules Laforgue. Modeled in colored wax in 1882 by the Parisian artist Henry Cros (1840-1907), they are examples of the revival of ancient wax and encaustic techniques. Among the artists supported by Georg Treu and Felicie Bernstein was the sculptor August Hudler (1868-1906). In 1903, Hudler created this bronze portrait plaque commissioned by Treu’s friends in recognition of his contributions to modern art.
Sabine Lepsius
Portrait of Johanna Springer
1904, oil on canvas
Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin
Sabine Lepsius’s likeness of Johanna Springer, daughter of publisher Fritz Springer, is an example of the portraits she painted of Berlin’s Jewish bourgeoisie.
[In the Showcase]
August Kraus
Portrait Medal of Emma Dohme
1908, bronze
Jewish Museum Berlin, donation from the estate of Irène Alenfeld
Emma Dohme (1854–1918) was a well-known hostess who helped shape Berlin’s salon culture. The sculptor August Kraus created this bronze medal in 1908, with Dohme’s portrait on the recto, complemented by an allegory of Abundantia, the Roman personification of abundance and prosperity, on the verso.
[Wall Citations]
“One felt oneself [. . .] transported to another city: to Paris.”
Max Liebermann, 1914
The Bernstein Collection
By 1877 the Bernsteins were living in an elegant apartment overlooking the Tiergarten at In den Zelten 23. Max Liebermann recalled that the Bernsteins decorated their apartment “entirely according to Parisian taste [ . . .] all their furniture came from Paris with the Aubussons, the wonderful Gobelins, the marvelous carved wood and gilt armchairs, upholstered in the most beautiful fabrics of their period.” Carl Bernstein was particularly passionate about his library, especially the rare eighteenth-century French illustrated books.
Felicie retained this French ambiance when she moved into the apartment at Stülerstrasse 6 in 1896. In the photograph of Felicie’s reception room, a framed rococo fan can be seen below a portrait of the French Queen Marie Antoinette. The far wall is dominated by one of the tapestries mentioned by Liebermann: The Offering of the Boar’s Head, from The Story of Meleager and Atalanta, made after a design by Charles Le Brun, court painter to Louis XIV. The Bernsteins owned two tapestries from this series, and other examples can be found in European royal collections.
Felicie remained an active collector. On a trip to London, she bought the eighteenth-century English prints displayed here, which she bequeathed to the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Museum for Prints and Drawings). Other acquisitions reflected her humanist values, such as the bronze statuette by Berlin sculptor Walter Lobach on view in this gallery. It depicts the Bernsteins’ friend, historian and Nobel Laureate Theodor Mommsen, a tireless advocate for religious tolerance.
[In the Showcase]
A Love for Eighteenth-Century French Classics
The idyllic scene on the frontispiece of the book Les Amours de Mirtil, shown here, was designed by Hubert-François Bourguignon (1699–1733), who was known as Gravelot, and executed as an engraving by Louis Legrand (1723–1807). Carl Bernstein devoted many hours to perusing his collection of French classics from the 18th century, which included rare editions of Ovid, Rousseau, Racine, Molière, and La Fontaine, which were lavishly decorated by artists such as François Boucher, Louis-Gabriel Moreau, and Jacques-Joseph Coiny. The exquisite bindings of these books mostly came from Parisian workshops and bear Carl Bernstein’s ex libris. After his death in 1894, Felicie donated these books to the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Museum for Prints and Drawings). In 1905, Felicie Bernstein supplemented her gift with 137 individual sheets, of which two are exhibited here in their original form.
[Wall Citations]
[On the wall with landscape painting by Sisley]:
“It is particularly dear to me as a legacy from the friends who have passed away. It is a spring day on the banks of the Seine near Marly. [. . .] Everything exudes a sunny cheerfulness.”
Georg Treu, 1914
[On wall with reproductions of paintings and world map, near Manet’s Peaches]:
“The good Frau Bernstein has bequeathed us the little ‘Manet.’ [. . .] May our good old friend be blessed. A fond memory of her has now been secured in our home.”
Curt Herrmann, 1908
The Collection of French Impressionism
Thanks to their close family ties in Paris, Felicie and Carl Bernstein were able to acquire a group of Impressionist paintings there in 1882. These purchases were remarkable, as Impressionism was then still controversial in France and Impressionist works had not yet been acquired by museums. The couple was advised in their selection by Carl’s cousin Charles Ephrussi, a friend of many of the Impressionist artists and an early collector of their works. During a visit to Édouard Manet’s studio during the last summer of the artist’s life, Carl and Felicie purchased three flower paintings. From Charles Ephrussi himself, the couple also acquired a harbor scene by Manet and a landscape of a field of poppies by Claude Monet. Alfred Sisley’s painting depicting a view of the Seine was hung in a place of honor in the Bernsteins’ music room. This significant painting has returned to Berlin for the first time for this exhibition.
The Impressionist pictures that have been definitively identified so far as part of the Bernstein collection are presented here in reproductions. Notably, nearly half of the works were created by women artists: by Mary Cassatt, Berthe Morisot, Marie Cazin, and Eva Gonzalès. Unfortunately, none of these works have been unequivocally identified. In many catalogues raisonnés, the Bernsteins have not been mentioned as part of the provenance histories.
Felicie’s Estate
Felicie Bernstein died on June 11, 1908, in Berlin. Already in February 1906, Felicie had recorded in detail how she wished her estate to be distributed among her friends and acquaintances. The list of bequests demonstrates that museums in Berlin also benefited from her generosity. The Kaiser-Friedrich Museum received a landscape painting by the Dutch artist Jan van Goyen, which it soon exchanged for another work. Felicie donated Édouard Manet’s late still life Lilas blanc dans un vase de verre (Bouquet of Lilacs, see Fig. 4 on the world map) to the National Gallery. She bequeathed “3 color prints” to the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings). The rest of her significant collection of French Impressionist works were bequeathed to various friends. Max Liebermann received Monet’s L’Été, champ de coquelicots (Summer, Poppy Field, Fig. 6.1). Earlier, in admiration for its composition, he had sketched the work in a letter. Monet’s Le petit bras de la Seine à Argenteuil (The Small Branch of the Seine at Argenteuil, Fig. 5.1) was left to Felicie’s friend Emma Dohme, who hung the painting in her living room above the sofa. To Georg Treu, the Bernsteins’ lifelong friend, Felicie bequeathed Alfred Sisley’s view of the Seine at Argenteuil. (The original painting is exhibited in this room.) Max Liebermann was able to purchase Manet’s still life Roses, tulips et lilas dans un vase de cristal (Roses, Tulips, and Lilacs in a Crystal Vase, Fig. 3.2) when Felicie Bernstein offered it for sale in 1893, and from then on, it hung in the painter’s music room at Pariserplatz.
In addition to Felicie’s handwritten note, an inventory list that was part of the estate of Andreas von Tuhr, the co-executor of her will together with Georg Treu, offers valuable information by listing the objects that remained in her apartment. This detailed inventory also provides an overview of the objects documented in the photographs by J. Egers from 1908, which can be seen throughout this exhibition.
What Remains
Felicie Bernstein dispersed items from her collection as she saw fit, a privilege denied to many Jewish collectors after 1933. As Georg Treu wrote, “Not a piece of her art holdings was to be sold. Each was to bring the recipient a little joy and encouragement, an echo of the effects that had emanated from the departing woman in life.” In contemporary Berlin, few traces remain of the Bernstein family. Only Édouard Manet’s late masterpiece, Lilas blanc dans un vase de verre (Bouquet of Lilacs), which can be admired by visitors to the Alte Nationalgalerie on Berlin’s Museum Island, provides a glimpse into their vanished world.
Yet thanks to the devotion of their friends, the Bernsteins’ legacy did not completely disappear. The volume of reminiscences—the Erinnerungen— provides not only a tribute to a remarkable couple and their circle but also serves as a memento mori for an epoch that irrevocably came to an end with the First World War.
[WALL CITATIONS]
“The Bernstein home reflected the changes in European artistic life over half a century.”
Georg Treu, 1914
“One of the last Berlin salons was that of Frau Felicie Bernstein who [. . .] possessed that engaging quality that unites opposites, encourages clever and amusing conversations, in short that stimulates intellectual ease and flexibility.”
Sabine Lepsius, 1913
“I was just sitting with your Bernstein book, and I experienced once again those lovely, charming, witty hours, above all, those of my youth. God! Was that ever lovely!”
Letter from Max Klinger to Georg Treu, April 10, 1914
Max’s Liebermann’s Self-Portrait
“People went to the Bernsteins because of the Bernsteins.”
Max Liebermann greatly appreciated the art collectors Felicie and Carl Bernstein. After meeting them in the 1880s, he became a welcome guest in their home. From 1884, they were also neighbors: Max and Martha Liebermann lived at In den Zelten 11, while the Bernsteins resided at No. 23. Reminiscing after the couple’s deaths, the painter admiringly described the elegant Parisian decor of their apartment, which had served as inspiration for the rooms in his own home. During a period when modern French art was hotly debated in Germany, Liebermann found common cause with the Bernsteins, who shared his views. Both the Bernsteins and Liebermann advocated for exhibitions of modern French art in Germany. At the same time, inspired by his exchanges with the couple, Liebermann began building his own significant art collection, which soon included works by Édouard Manet and Claude Monet, and gained nationwide recognition in Germany. The further development of Liebermann’s artistic style was strongly influenced by French models.
The appreciation between the Bernsteins and Liebermann was mutual. The Bernsteins collected his works, at least four of which can be identified: a drawing of Martha Liebermann, a village street, a pastel depicting a mother and child, and an oil portrait of Carl Bernstein. For this portrait, Carl Bernstein made him a generous offer, exchanging Manet’s Bouquet de pivoines (Bouquet of Peonies) from the couple’s collection for the Bernstein portrait that hangs here in the hall. Liebermann, a great admirer of Manet, later purchased another flower still life from the Bernstein collection, Roses, tulipes et lilas dans un vase de cristal (Roses, Tulips, and Lilacs in a Crystal Vase), when Felicie parted with it in 1893.