Berlin. Cosmopolite

The exhibition tells for the first time the story of the important Jewish art collector couple Felicie (1849-1908) and Carl Bernstein (1842-1894) and their influence on the Berlin art scene of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In the summer of 1882, the couple brought an impressive group of Impressionist paintings from Paris to Berlin. The Bernsteins, both from wealthy families from the Russian Empire, soon became well-known figures in the city’s art scene. They organised a weekly Salon in their house in the Tiergarten district. Among the regulars were Max Liebermann, Sabine Lepsius and Adolph von Menzel, as well as museum directors Hugo von Tschudi, Alfred Lichtwark and Wilhelm Bode. It is worth taking a look at their network and the Salon culture of the time.

Jewish life in the German Empire was marked by ambivalence. This exhibition aims to fill an important gap in Berlin’s cultural memory and to rediscover the lost world of the Bernsteins. Today, their collection is scattered around the world, from Philadelphia to Tokyo. The exhibition is based on the research of our guest curators, Chana Schütz and Emily Bilski, who have gone to great lengths to trace the current locations of the works in the Bernstein collection.

Max Liebermann was also impressed by the Bernsteins’ art collection, which had a profound influence on his own art collecting: ‘The [Bernstein] collection contained Manet’s most beautiful still lifes […] but above all wonderful Cl[aude] Monets, including the famous Champs de coquelicots, which Mrs Bernstein left me because I had always particularly admired this painting’

(Max Liebermann: Phantasie in der Malerei. Reden und Schriften, p. 90)