Paul Levi (22 August 1919 – 5 August 2008) was a German-born picture framer.

Background

Levi played a pivotal role in the transformation of picture framing in the decades following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and created a wide range of frames based on historic styles for public and private patrons, including a number of the greatest art collections of Europe and North America.

Early life

Levi was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

on 22 August 1919, the only son of the mathematician Friedrich Levi. In 1935 his father, who was of Jewish ancestry, was prevented from teaching in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

and left for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. Levi was sent to Blundell's School in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

where he developed his interest in carving and architecture, winning a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

schools' prize for sculpture. As a German national Levi was interned on the

Isle of Man ) , anthem = "O Land of Our Birth" , image = Isle of Man by Sentinel-2.jpg , image_map = Europe-Isle_of_Man.svg , mapsize = , map_alt = Location of the Isle of Man in Europe , map_caption = Location of the Isle of Man (green) in Europe ...

following the German invasion of the

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in 1940. Whilst interned he became friendly with others in the same situation, including Johannes Wilde (later deputy director of the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...

Max Perutz Max Ferdinand Perutz (19 May 1914 – 6 February 2002) was an Austrian-born British molecular biologist, who shared the 1962 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with John Kendrew, for their studies of the structures of haemoglobin and myoglobin. He went ...

(the molecular biologist who was awarded the

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

for Chemistry in 1962) and the mathematician Sir Hermann Bondi. He was subsequently sent to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

before being returned to England and set to work as an agricultural labourer in

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

Post war

After the war Levi met the artist and frame-maker F.A. Pollak and subsequently began to collect examples of antique frames. He later recognised that 16th-century Dutch frames could be dated precisely from the profiles of their mouldings when compared to a sequence of fixed points provided by dated paintings retaining their original frames. This systematic approach was to form the basis for Levi's subsequent career, and in 1950 he set up his own workshop. The intellectual approach adopted by Levi was unusual at that time, given that the Modern movement was increasingly dominating public museums and galleries (for example Franco Albini's 1950 decision to remove the frames from the Old Master paintings in the Palazzo Bianco and display them against white walls). However, collectors such as Antoine Seilern and Sir

Brinsley Ford Sir Richard Brinsley Ford (10 June 1908 – 4 May 1999) was a British art historian, scholar, and collector. He inherited a large collection of art from his family and was himself an avid collector. A drawing that he purchased in 1936 was sold ...

kept to traditional values and employed Levi regularly. Few public collections followed their examples until the late 1970s. It was Levi who first reconstructed the machine needed to recreate the black ripple moulding frames for reframing of Dutch 17th-century paintings. One of Levi's greatest successes after his retirement, and in collaboration with William Adair, was the identification of the 11 paintings needed to reassemble Filippo Mazzola’s polyptych that formed the altarpiece in the church of S Maria delle Grazie at Cortemaggiore. Levi had purchased the frame in 1967 and his role in and generosity in donating it were recognised in 2003 when he was awarded the rank of

Cavaliere The Italian honours system is a means to reward achievements or service to the Italian Republic, formerly the Kingdom of Italy including the Italian Social Republic. Orders of chivalry Italian Republic There are five orders of knighthood ...

. Levi married Paula Fuchs in 1951, he had three sons and two daughters and died in

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of Letter (alphabet), letters, symbols, etc., especially by Visual perception, sight or Somatosensory system, touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process invo ...

Sources

Obituary - Paul Levi, The Independent, 31 December 2008Part 1, A 500-year-old frame returns home, William B Adair, Picture Framing Magazine, August 2003Part 2, A 500-year-old frame returns home, William B Adair, Picture Framing Magazine, September 2003
*Adams, Lorraine, 'Restoration leads to Historical Reunion', The Washington Post, 24 October 2002 {{DEFAULTSORT:Levi, Paul 1919 births 2008 deaths People educated at Blundell's School People interned in the Isle of Man during World War II Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United Kingdom People from Leipzig