Josef Karl Paul Otto Krebs (25 March 1873–26 March 1941) was a German industrialist and major collector of late 19th and early 20th century French paintings, particularly those of
Cézanne,
Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
and
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...
. Seized by the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...
and taken to
Leningrad
Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
as war reparations, his collection is still housed at the
Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
in that city.
Life
Born to a physics teacher (later a professor) in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, he studied at Berlin's Polytechnikum before studying philosophy in
Zurich, where he completed his thesis in 1897. He then became commercial director of
Rudolf Otto Meyer's firm in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
, before setting up a new business in 1906 () in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...
which in time became among the best boiler manufacturers in Germany, particularly of steam boilers. His business success was due to engineer Joseph Strebel's 1903 discovery of building backward-flow steam boilers (). He became wealthy enough to start collecting in the 1920s, mainly buying works in Paris, especially from the art dealers
Durand-Ruel
Paul Durand-Ruel (31 October 1831, Paris – 5 February 1922, Paris) was a French art dealer associated with the Impressionists and the Barbizon School. Being the first to support artists such as Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste ...
and
Bernheim-Jeune
Bernheim-Jeune gallery is one of the oldest art galleries in Paris.
Opened on Rue Laffitte in 1863 by Alexandre Bernheim (1839-1915), friend of Delacroix, Corot and Courbet, it changed location a few times before settling on Avenue Matignon. The ...
.
In 1917 he bought an estate in Holzdorf, a small village to the south of
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
which he had got to know en route between his main factory in Mannheim and others in
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
and
German Silesia. Building a holiday home there, he moved there permanently around 1930, using its reception rooms to house his art collection as well as
Gobelins tapestries. He died of cancer at Holzdorf, leaving much of his estate to a foundation for cancer research which is now part of the
University of Heidelberg
}
Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...
's medical faculty and the house and grounds to his mistress and wife, the pianist
Frieda Kwast-Hodapp. It was occupied by the Soviet Army staff after the Allied victory and the building's collections were taken to Leningrad as war reparations in 1947,
[ Broschüre: Landgut Holzdorf - Bildung, Erholung, Betreuung]
Förderverein Landgut Holzdorf
e.V. Ohne Jahresangabe. but not displayed to the public until 1995.
Collection
Otto Krebs launched his collection after he purchased the estate. It comprises antique objects as well as old furniture and modern paintings. While he appreciated the Romantic period, his collection is primarily based on late 19th century and 20th century works. Albert Kostenevitch
[Kostenevitch, ''op. cité''] compared his collection to that of the American
Albert C. Barnes, but considered it to be of better quality, especially his
Cézannes, seven paintings demonstrating all of the master's capabilities, in
still life
A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...
s as well as in
landscapes
A landscape is the visible features of an area of Terrestrial ecoregion, land, its landforms, and how they integrate with Nature, natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionar ...
,
portrait
A portrait is a portrait painting, painting, portrait photography, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, Personality type ...
s, or
figurative compositions. Likewise, his collections of
Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
(four paintings including ''Portrait of Madame Trabuc'', painted in September 1889) and
Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetism, Synthetist style that were d ...
(two paintings, including ''The Two Sisters'' or ''Piti Teina'', unknown until the 1995 Hermitage exhibition) are of exceptional quality.
All the masterpieces are different and among them provide an overview of the highest achievements of the painting of that period. The collection also includes some
Degas
Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings.
Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is espec ...
, six
Monets, a
Toulouse-Lautrec
Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in the la ...
, some
Pissarros,
Picasso's ''
The Absinthe Drinker'', and
Vuillard's ''Madame Vuillard in the Salon'' (1898).
image:'The Grand Quay at Havre' by Claude Monet, 1874, Hermitage.JPG, Monet
Oscar-Claude Monet (, , ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of impressionist painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During ...
: '' The Grand Quai at Le Havre'' (1874), Hermitage Museum
The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
image:'Barges at Billancourt' by Alfred Sisley, 1877, Hermitage.JPG, Sisley
Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedicatio ...
: '' The Barges at Billancourt'' (1877), Hermitage Museum
image:Gogh, Vincent van - Landscape with House and Ploughman.jpg, Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
: '' Valley with Ploughman Seen from Above'' (1889), Hermitage Museum
image:Whitehousenight.jpg, Van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inclu ...
: '' White House at Night'' (1890), Hermitage Museum
image:Van Gogh - Auf dem Weg zum Feld (nach Millet).jpeg, Van Gogh: ''Morning, Leaving for Work'' (1890), Hermitage Museum
image:Paul Cézanne, Still Life With Apples, c. 1890.jpg, Cézanne: ''Still Life with Apples'' (vers 1890), Hermitage Museum
image:Paul Cézanne - Baigneuses (St.Petersburg, Hermitage).jpg, Cézanne: ''Bathers'' (1890 ou 1891), Hermitage Museum
References
350px, :_''Garden_at_Bordighera,_Morning">Claude_Monet:_''Garden_at_Bordighera,_Morning''_(1884),_Hermitage_Museum..html" ;"title="Garden_at_Bordighera,_Morning.html" ;"title="Claude Monet: ''Garden at Bordighera, Morning">Claude Monet: ''Garden at Bordighera, Morning'' (1884), Hermitage Museum.">Garden_at_Bordighera,_Morning.html" ;"title="Claude Monet: ''Garden at Bordighera, Morning">Claude Monet: ''Garden at Bordighera, Morning'' (1884), Hermitage Museum.
External links
The Otto Krebs Collection in ''The Independent'', 1996
via wayback machine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Krebs, Otto
People from Wiesbaden
1941 deaths
1873 births
German industrialists
20th-century German businesspeople
German art collectors
20th-century art collectors
Art crime
Deaths from cancer in Germany