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Customers Conversing in a Tavern
Adriaen van Ostade (Dutch, 1610–1684)
1671
Medium/Technique
Oil on panel
Dimensions
44.5 × 37.5 cm (17 1/2 × 14 3/4 in.)
Credit Line
Promised gift of Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession NumberL-R 55.2023
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
Signed
signed and dated 1671
ProvenanceNovember 10, 1801, possibly in an anonymous sale, Amsterdam, lot 9. By 1908, Joshua Charles Vanneck, 4th Baron Huntingfield (b. 1842– d. 1915), Heveningham Hall, Suffolk; June 25, 1915, posthumous Lord Huntingfield sale, Christie, Manson, and Woods, London, lot 105, sold for £262 to Morton (probably bought in or bought back); March 18, 1918, Huntingfield estate and others sale, Mak, Amsterdam, lot 105. 1925, Jonas Lek, Brussels; March 31, 1925, Lek sale, Muller, Amsterdam, lot 65. 1927, Vicars Brothers, London. By 1937, Paul Graupe (b. 1881 – d. 1953), Paul Graupe et Cie., Paris [see note 1]; 1940, put into storage at Wacker and Bondy, Paris [see note 2]; February 19, 1941, sold by Arthur Goldschmidt (b. 1891 – d. 1960) to Karl Haberstock (b. 1878 – d. 1956), Berlin [see note 3]; April 2, 1941, sold by Haberstock to the Reich Chancellery and selected for the Führermuseum, Linz; moved to the Führerbau, Munich (no. 1601) and later moved to Alt Aussee (1699/1); July 2, 1945, recovered by Allied forces and shipped to the Munich Central Collecting Point (no. 2355/1); June 25, 1946, shipped from the Munich Central Collecting Point to Paris; placed in the custody of the Office for Private Property and Interests and transferred to the Estates Administration (Administration des Domaines); March 6, 1951, sold through the Salle des Ventes de l’Administration des Domaines, Paris, for fr. 705,000 [see note 4]. 1951, sold by M. O. Leegenhoek (dealer), Paris, to Matthiesen, Ltd., London; 1955, sold by Matthiesen to Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam. 1958, art market, The Netherlands. 1992, sold by a private collection, through Johnny van Haeften (dealer), London, to Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, Boston.
NOTES:
[1] See “Notable Works of Art Now on the Market,” advertising supplement to Burlington Magazine, December 1937, n.p., plate X.
[2] By 1939, the three managers of the firm Paul Graupe et Cie. were Paul Graupe, Arthur Goldschmidt, and Käthe Simon. Graupe and his wife left France for Switzerland that year. The Paris gallery closed in June 1940, and a large number of works of art, including the Ostade, were moved by Goldschmidt and Simon to a storage facility called Wacker-Bondy. Goldschmidt and his wife moved to Cannes in the south of France in mid-1940.
[3] In early 1941, Goldschmidt began or had already begun a working relationship with dealer Karl Haberstock, an agent for Adolf Hitler who had received authorization to travel between the occupied and unoccupied zones of France. Goldschmidt sold Haberstock two paintings belonging to Graupe, the Ostade and a Brouwer, as confirmed in a receipt dated February 19, 1941. However, the sale probably took place earlier; Hitler’s art advisor and curator, Hans Posse, had reported that on February 9 he went to Paris and bought paintings by Ostade and Brouwer from Haberstock.
[4] At the end of the war, the Ostade was identified as the former property of Arthur Goldschmidt and restituted to France. There is no evidence that either Goldschmidt or Graupe claimed the Ostade. A special commission was appointed to choose from those still-unclaimed works of art that were of interest to the French state. The works of art not selected by France for its museums, including the Ostade, were given over to a public auction house for sale.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt were Jewish art dealers and business associates. Between August and December 1940, as Graupe prepared to leave Europe, he wrote to Goldschmidt about his property held at Wacker-Bondy, and asked him “to try and save all that can be saved.” Graupe left Switzerland for Lisbon in December 1940, immigrating to the US in March 1941. Goldschmidt remained in the south of France until July 1941, when he fled for Cuba. In February and March 1941, Goldschmidt cabled Graupe that eight of his paintings from Wacker-Bondy were with him in the south France, including the Ostade, and that he intended to send them on to Graupe. In fact, the Ostade probably remained in Paris, where it was acquired by Haberstock; only four of Graupe’s eight paintings were ultimately shipped to him.
In October 1941, Goldschmidt wrote to Graupe that he had “by coincidence and ‘luck’” been able to sell the Ostade. He claimed that he made agreements with a group of “gangsters” to whom he turned over a group of Graupe’s paintings. Goldschmidt stated he was able to get them to release one picture—the Ostade—which he sold to raise money to secure the release of the others. He made no mention of the painting’s sale to Haberstock in early February, and it is not known if Graupe ever learned what had happened to it. Graupe severed his ties with Goldschmidt that fall, angry that he had been selling off Graupe gallery stock without his involvement.
The Ostade was initially among the paintings claimed by Paul Graupe after World War II, but was removed from his claim lists, whether intentionally—because it had not been looted by National Socialist forces—or inadvertently, is not known. It went unclaimed and was publicly sold.
In 2023, the MFA, Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, and the heirs of Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt reached a settlement over the painting’s ownership. It remains in the Weatherbies’ collection and has been promised to the MFA.
NOTES:
[1] See “Notable Works of Art Now on the Market,” advertising supplement to Burlington Magazine, December 1937, n.p., plate X.
[2] By 1939, the three managers of the firm Paul Graupe et Cie. were Paul Graupe, Arthur Goldschmidt, and Käthe Simon. Graupe and his wife left France for Switzerland that year. The Paris gallery closed in June 1940, and a large number of works of art, including the Ostade, were moved by Goldschmidt and Simon to a storage facility called Wacker-Bondy. Goldschmidt and his wife moved to Cannes in the south of France in mid-1940.
[3] In early 1941, Goldschmidt began or had already begun a working relationship with dealer Karl Haberstock, an agent for Adolf Hitler who had received authorization to travel between the occupied and unoccupied zones of France. Goldschmidt sold Haberstock two paintings belonging to Graupe, the Ostade and a Brouwer, as confirmed in a receipt dated February 19, 1941. However, the sale probably took place earlier; Hitler’s art advisor and curator, Hans Posse, had reported that on February 9 he went to Paris and bought paintings by Ostade and Brouwer from Haberstock.
[4] At the end of the war, the Ostade was identified as the former property of Arthur Goldschmidt and restituted to France. There is no evidence that either Goldschmidt or Graupe claimed the Ostade. A special commission was appointed to choose from those still-unclaimed works of art that were of interest to the French state. The works of art not selected by France for its museums, including the Ostade, were given over to a public auction house for sale.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt were Jewish art dealers and business associates. Between August and December 1940, as Graupe prepared to leave Europe, he wrote to Goldschmidt about his property held at Wacker-Bondy, and asked him “to try and save all that can be saved.” Graupe left Switzerland for Lisbon in December 1940, immigrating to the US in March 1941. Goldschmidt remained in the south of France until July 1941, when he fled for Cuba. In February and March 1941, Goldschmidt cabled Graupe that eight of his paintings from Wacker-Bondy were with him in the south France, including the Ostade, and that he intended to send them on to Graupe. In fact, the Ostade probably remained in Paris, where it was acquired by Haberstock; only four of Graupe’s eight paintings were ultimately shipped to him.
In October 1941, Goldschmidt wrote to Graupe that he had “by coincidence and ‘luck’” been able to sell the Ostade. He claimed that he made agreements with a group of “gangsters” to whom he turned over a group of Graupe’s paintings. Goldschmidt stated he was able to get them to release one picture—the Ostade—which he sold to raise money to secure the release of the others. He made no mention of the painting’s sale to Haberstock in early February, and it is not known if Graupe ever learned what had happened to it. Graupe severed his ties with Goldschmidt that fall, angry that he had been selling off Graupe gallery stock without his involvement.
The Ostade was initially among the paintings claimed by Paul Graupe after World War II, but was removed from his claim lists, whether intentionally—because it had not been looted by National Socialist forces—or inadvertently, is not known. It went unclaimed and was publicly sold.
In 2023, the MFA, Susan and Matthew Weatherbie, and the heirs of Paul Graupe and Arthur Goldschmidt reached a settlement over the painting’s ownership. It remains in the Weatherbies’ collection and has been promised to the MFA.