The winter landscape the authorities refused to let leave
A 1939 letter to Max Stern in exile gives a clue to what became of one of the pictures withheld from his private collection.
The Max Stern Art Restitution Project catalogues a small Winter Landscape under Willem van Bemmel. The photograph shows snow in the foreground and a group of buildings on the right, beneath a dark sky. It is an oil on canvas measuring 33 by 40 centimetres. The project records no known inscription.
The trail leads through correspondence rather than the November 1937 gallery auction. In May 1939 a Nazi office notified Stern’s representative that five pictures from his personal collection were being held back. In June, Lempertz wrote to Stern in London that a winter landscape by van Bemmel had been sent to the municipal art hall in Düsseldorf on instructions from the Nazi cultural authorities.
Those letters explain an official transfer, without identifying a later purchaser or the painting’s current owner. The Stern project still lists the van Bemmel as missing. Its modest dimensions and the surviving image help identify this particular winter scene among several works that have circulated under similarly broad titles.
Artwork Details & DocumentationIdentification, ownership history and supporting records
Individual artwork identification details have not yet been documented in this record. Missing specifications are not inferred from the photograph or report headline.
Not documented in this record: object type · materials & technique · measurements · inscriptions & markings · distinguishing features · artwork title · maker / attribution · creation date / period · subject.
Record sources
Identification details follow the Object ID categories where documented. Ownership history is recorded separately; this documentation is not an authentication or a certificate of ownership.
Documentary sources
- Concordia University · Max Stern Art Restitution Project, Galerie Stern inventory ↗
- Concordia University · Research on the dispersal of the Stern collection ↗
- Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf · Exhibition research on Max Stern ↗
An original ArtTraceX synthesis. Sources checked .