Seven Paintings formerly in the Collection of Paul Wertheimer, Bielefeld, Westphalia (lots 1-7)

Introduction
The following seven paintings were acquired in the 1920s and early 1930s by the collector and businessman Paul Wertheimer (1872-1941). As the works attest, Wertheimer's taste was for traditional Flemish and Dutch Old Masters.

From the invoices that survive it is clear that the paintings came from reputable sources, such as the dealership Gerke & Co in Hannover which was within easy reach of Bielefeld. Records also suggest that Wetheimer was assiduous in keeping supporting expertise on file, for example opinions from Professor Boden and the Munich based dealer and auctioneer Hugo Helbing (see lot 4).

The Wertheimer family had been living in Bielefeld since 1839. In 1889 Josef Wertheimer, Paul's father, built a state of the art silk weaving factory in Bielefeld-Jöllenbeck. The company gained a reputation for paying above average wages and having enlightened family-friendly working practices. By the time Paul and his brother Eduard took over the running of the business the company was employing some six hundred and sixty workers and still expanding.

But with the establishment of the Third Reich and Hitler's rise to power Paul became concerned for his family's future. After his youngest son and daughter became a target for the Hitler Youth he sent them to be schooled in Switzerland. Soon after his and Eduard's passports were confiscated, their account books seized and they were locked out of their factory. Then in 1936 the brothers were forced to sell the business for a knock down price.

Facing an impossible future in Germany, in 1938 Paul left with his family for England. He brought as much of his art collection as he could with him, including the following lots, and established a rayon and silk weaving company in London. He urged his brother to follow. But despite Eduard's increasing persecution at the hands of the Nazis - his house was seized, his assets frozen and he was forced to live off a limited allowance - he opted to remain in Bielefeld. Then, in 1942, warned in advance of a mass deportation of Jews from Bielefeld to Theresienstadt, the Nazi concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia, Eduard took his own life.

Now in Bielefeld a Stolpersteine has been laid to commemorate Eduard, and a street, Wertheimerstrasse, has been named after the family.

ATTRIBUTED TO LUCAS VAN UDEN (FLEMISH 1595-1672)
SUMMER: PEASANTS GOING TO MARKET, AFTER SIR PETER PAUL RUBENS
oil on cradled panel
56 x 85cm; 22 x 33 1/2in
76 x 105cm; 30 x 41 1/4in (framed)

Property formerly in the Collection of Paul Wertheimer, Bielefeld, Westphalia (lots 1-7)

Provenance
Paul Wertheimer, Bielefeld, Westphalia (acquired circa 1930)
Thence by descent to the present owner, grandson of the above

The present work is a reduced copy after Rubens' original painting Summer: Peasants going to Market painted circa 1618, now in the Royal Collection, London. Other copies of Rubens' work by van Uden include The watering place sold at Christie's London 11th December 1992, lot 220 (Rubens' original, painted circa 1615-22, is in the National Gallery, London) and Landscape with a rainbow in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (Rubens' original, painted circa 1636 is in the Wallace Collection, London).

Working mainly in Antwerp, Lucas van Uden was closely associated with the landscape artist Jan Wildens (1586-1653) who frequently collaborated with Rubens. Despite this and the strong influence Rubens had on van Uden’s work, it is no longer thought that the painter was a member of Rubens' studio and there is no evidence to suggest that the two artists worked together on any compositions. However, van Uden did collaborate with David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) and Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678) both of whom added figures and animals to van Uden’s landscapes. In fact, van Uden’s Peasant’s merry-making before a country house in the National Gallery, London shows figures not dissimilar to the figures in the present composition added to the landscape by Teniers.