The Plesch Family Portrait: A Painting by Max Slevogt
From Our Holdings
In 1928, Max Slevogt (1868–1932) painted the Plesch family. On the left, we see the well-known doctor Janos Plesch (1878–1957) and in the middle, his wife Melanie surrounded by their three children: Andreas Odilo, on his mother's lap, Dagmar Honoria, at the bottom right, and Peter Hariolf.
Max Slevogt, Plesch Family Portrait; Jewish Museum Berlin, photo: Jens Ziehe
The Family and Their Painter
Janos Plesch left Budapest to settle in Berlin in 1903. There he met his wife Melanie, née Gans, whose family had co-founded the Casella dye factory in Frankfurt. The doctor had a longstanding friendship with Max Slevogt, one of German Impressionism's most important figures alongside Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth. The artist painted his doctor as an elegant gentleman on a tall canvas in 1923, followed by paintings for their loggia and garden pavilion and finally, in 1928, the family portrait, which hung in the first-floor hall leading to the family's private rooms.
The History of the Painting Plesch Family Portrait
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The family portrait on the first floor of the Plesch family house on Budapester Straße, Berlin, around 1930; Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Professor Peter H. Plesch in memory of his parents Janos and Melanie Plesch.
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Peter Plesch in front of the painting Plesch Family Portrait, Sönke Tollkühn
The family portrait on the first floor of the Plesch family house on Budapester Straße, Berlin, around 1930; Jewish Museum Berlin, gift of Professor Peter H. Plesch in memory of his parents Janos and Melanie Plesch.
Intimate Yet Representative
Though Slevogt's composition follows the family-portrait tradition of the Biedermeier period, the painter achieved a synthesis unusual for a modern family portrait: the painting captures the intimacy of family life while fulfilling a group portrait's representative function. The success of the portrait lies perhaps in the fact that it grew out of a long friendship between artist and commissioner based on mutual trust and similar values.
Emigration
In 1933, Janos Plesch lost his professorship at the Charité teaching hospital and the family fled to England via Switzerland. In Berlin, their secretary arrange for all their household possessions to be shipped to the United Kingdom. That is how this family portrait, too, was rescued.
The Painting's Return to Berlin
Back in 1986, their eldest son Peter Plesch donated his parents' considerable accumulation of possessions to what was then still the Jewish department of the Berlin Museum. Twenty years later, the Jewish Museum Berlin was able to acquire this painting from him.
| Title | Plesch Family Portrait |
|---|---|
| Artist | Max Slevogt |
| Collection | Fine Arts |
| Location and year of origin | Berlin, 1928 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 105 x 135,4 cm |
Selected Objects: Fine Arts Collection (12)
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Fine Arts Collection
Glance through our art holdings featuring modernist works by Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth, and commercial graphic art by Louis Oppenheim. The motifs span from biblical and Jewish themes to intimate portraits and Felix Nussbaum’s haunting response to his experience of persecution.
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Albertine Mendelssohn-Bartholdy as a Bride by August Theodor Kaselowsky
In this painting, Albertine Heine appears to be a Christian Madonna. She holds the ring near her heart, wearing a white dress with her gaze modestly lowered.
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Biblical map of the Holy Land
This "New and Original Biblical Map of the Holy Land" from 1893 was probably never intended to be used by pilgrims or travelers on the ground.
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Loneliness by Felix Nussbaum
Nussbaum is nearly unique among artists for his striking examination of his plight as one of the persecuted. He painted it in Brussels, where he was in hiding, in 1942.
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The Plesch Family Portrait by Max Slevogt
Max Slevogt created this painting of his friend's family in 1928. It captures the intimacy of family life while fulfilling a group portrait's representative function.
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Composition by Otto Freundlich
Otto Freundlich painted this abstract composition in 1938 – one year after another artwork of his had been branded "degenerate art" in Nazi Germany.
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Moses Looks upon the Promised Land by Lesser Ury
For artist Lesser Ury, the painting marked the end of a lifelong preoccupation with the figure of Moses. Unfortunately, only a pastel sketch for the painting survives.
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Petermannchen by Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth painted this portrait of his student and wife-to-be during a beach vacation on the Baltic coast. It contains a secret romantic message.
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Sabbath by Jankel Adler
Jankel Adler's painting Sabbath shows a parlor scene on the weekly day of rest. But the artist has not depicted the festive, pleasurable moment of welcoming the Shabbat.
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Girl Walking by Elisabeth Wolff
The sculpture by Elisabeth Wolff was a trophy at the first sporting festival held by the Reich Committee for Jewish Youth Associations, in 1934. The artwork has only been entrusted to our collection for safekeeping.
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Self-Portrait with Straw Hat by Max Liebermann
In this late self-portrait, the artist presents himself as bourgeois in a dark suit and a Panama hat. Two years after his eightieth birthday, he painted himself here with a touch of resignation and melancholy.
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S. Adam Advertising Poster by Louis Oppenheim
With this poster by the well-known graphic artist Louis Oppenheim, the S. Adam clothing store advertised its products to male and female sports enthusiasts in 1908.
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Passage through the Red Sea by Jakob Steinhardt
This woodcut by Jakob Steinhardt illustrates a 1920s Haggadah. The people barely escaped with their lives—as is revealed in the expression on Moses’ face.