Otto Greiner (Leipzig 1869 - 1916 Munich)

Portrait of Dr. Johannes Guthmann, a view of his head in profile facing right

being a head study for the 1907 lithograph Portrait of Johannes Guthmann in Berlin (full figure in profile seated on a chair), Vogel graphics catalogue raisonné, Nr. 92 ("Bildnis von Dr. Johannes Guthmann in Berlin")

1907

charcoal, gouache, pencil, and heightening on paper

15,5 x 14 cm

in pencil initialed "O.Gr.," dated "Feb. 07," and inscribed "Rom" ["Rome"]

The Daulton Collection

Provenance:

possibly Dr. Joachim Zimmermann, Berlin, as of 1917.  In the catalogue of Karl & Faber's 2007 auction where The Daulton Collection purchased this drawing (see below), the auction catalogue states that, as of 1917, the drawing was owned by Dr. Joachim Zimmermann (the sitter Guthmann's life partner).  However, in his 1917 catalogue raisonné of Greiner's graphic work, art historian Julius Vogel (1862-1927), who knew Greiner, Guthmann, and Zimmermann, stated that the study owned by Zimmermann was a drawing of the full seated figure, not just the head ("Vorzeichnung für die ganze Figur") ["preliminary drawing for the entire figure"].

Collection Walter Bareiss (Tübingen, Germany 1919 - 2007 Stamford, Connecticut), probably acquired in or after 1999.  Bareiss was a German-American businessman, who was known for his expansive and outstanding art collection, encompassing not only modern and contemporary German art, but also modern illustrated books, African sculpture, Japanese prints, and Chinese ceramics, among other areas.

Exhibition History:

possibly "Ausstellung zum Gedächtnis von Otto Greiner [Exhibition in Memory of Otto Greiner]," Leipziger Kunstverein, Leipzig, February-March, 1917

Publication History:

possibly Leipziger Kunstverein, Ausstellung zum Gedächtnis von Otto Greiner (Leipzig: Leipziger Kunstverein, 1917), pg. 32, cat. nr. 262 (not illustrated).

Thomas Röske, "Ein Doppelportrait von Max Slevogt," Blick Zurueck nach Vorn, Neue Forschungen zu Max Slevogt, ed. Gregor Wedekind (Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 2016), 61-79, at 68, ill. 2.

Discussion:

Dr. Johannes Guthmann (Berlin 1876 - 1956 Ebenhausen-Zell, Germany) was a wealthy art historian, writer, salonnier, and art collector, who was a close friend of Otto Greiner.  Guthmann authored a monograph about Otto Greiner: Über Otto Greiner (Leipzig: Verlag Karl W. Hiersemann, 1903). 

For Greiner's related lithograph of 1907, see the catalogue raisonne, Julius Vogel, Otto Greiners Graphische Arbeiten in Lithographie, Stich und Radierung (Dresden: Ernst Arnold, 1917), Nr. 92 ("Bildnis von Dr. Johannes Guthmann in Berlin"), Tafel XXXIV.