Max Stern (gallery owner)
Encyclopedia
Max Stern was a German
-Canadian
arts benefactor, art historian, and owner of Montreal
's landmark Dominion Gallery (in French, Galerie Dominion).
in 1904. He studied art in several European cities before returning to Düsseldorf
to direct his father's gallery, the Galerie Julius Stern. In 1937, Stern was ordered by the Nazi government to liquidate his gallery's holdings because they had forbidden Jews to sell art. Before leaving Germany, his collection was sold through the Lempertz auction house in Cologne. Not all the art was sold however, and he placed it in storage. After the war he discovered that the auction house had sold them as well.
Stern fled Germany and lived for a short time in Paris
and then London
. He started another gallery in the latter city, but was interned on the Isle of Man
as an "enemy alien". In 1943 he moved to Canada
, where he partnered with Dominion Gallery of Fine Arts founder Rose Millman. Finally able to recover some of his lost art in Europe, in 1947, Max and Iris Stern bought the gallery and made it a focal point for the dissemination of "living art" by Canadian artists. Max Stern was also interested in modern European art. He was the first dealer to sell works by Wassily Kandinsky
to the Museum of Modern Art
in New York
, and held the exclusive rights in Canada
to sell the work of Auguste Rodin
.
Also great art collectors, Max and Iris Stern donated numerous works by Canadian
and Europe
an artists to over twenty public institutions in North America and Israel
.
Max Stern was instrumental in promoting numerous Canadian artists that he represented from the 1950s until his death. The Max Stern Art Restitution Project is an undertaking of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and McGill University
and Concordia University, both in Montreal - in association with the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in New York - that is attempting to locate and recover works from the Max Stern collection lost during the late 1930s. There are estimated to be about 400 pieces in total, of which about 10 percent had been located by 2006.
Other beneficiaries at his death were the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada. The Max Stern Fellowship was created by Dr. Stern’s estate and the McCord Museum of Canadian History in 1991.
Portrait of Jan van Eversdyck; by Nicolas Neufchatel (1527-1590)
Extensive landscape with travelers on a track near a walled town with a castle and a church, a village beyond; by Jan de Vos I (1593-1649)
Girl from the Sabine Mountains; by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873)
Flight into Egypt; by Circle of Jan Wellens de Cock (c. 1480-1527)
Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe; Northern Netherlandish School (1632)
St. Jerome; by Lodovico Carracci (1555-1619)
Allegory of Earth and Water; by Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678)
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
-Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
arts benefactor, art historian, and owner of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
's landmark Dominion Gallery (in French, Galerie Dominion).
Life & legacy
Max Stern was born in GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1904. He studied art in several European cities before returning to Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
to direct his father's gallery, the Galerie Julius Stern. In 1937, Stern was ordered by the Nazi government to liquidate his gallery's holdings because they had forbidden Jews to sell art. Before leaving Germany, his collection was sold through the Lempertz auction house in Cologne. Not all the art was sold however, and he placed it in storage. After the war he discovered that the auction house had sold them as well.
Stern fled Germany and lived for a short time in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and then London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He started another gallery in the latter city, but was interned on the Isle of Man
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...
as an "enemy alien". In 1943 he moved to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where he partnered with Dominion Gallery of Fine Arts founder Rose Millman. Finally able to recover some of his lost art in Europe, in 1947, Max and Iris Stern bought the gallery and made it a focal point for the dissemination of "living art" by Canadian artists. Max Stern was also interested in modern European art. He was the first dealer to sell works by Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
to the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, and held the exclusive rights in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to sell the work of Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
.
Also great art collectors, Max and Iris Stern donated numerous works by Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an artists to over twenty public institutions in North America and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Max Stern was instrumental in promoting numerous Canadian artists that he represented from the 1950s until his death. The Max Stern Art Restitution Project is an undertaking of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...
and Concordia University, both in Montreal - in association with the Holocaust Claims Processing Office in New York - that is attempting to locate and recover works from the Max Stern collection lost during the late 1930s. There are estimated to be about 400 pieces in total, of which about 10 percent had been located by 2006.
Other beneficiaries at his death were the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the National Gallery of Canada. The Max Stern Fellowship was created by Dr. Stern’s estate and the McCord Museum of Canadian History in 1991.
Art recovered by the Max Stern Art Restitution Project
Aimée, A Young Egyptian; by Emile C.H. Vernet-Lecomte (1821-1874)Portrait of Jan van Eversdyck; by Nicolas Neufchatel (1527-1590)
Extensive landscape with travelers on a track near a walled town with a castle and a church, a village beyond; by Jan de Vos I (1593-1649)
Girl from the Sabine Mountains; by Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873)
Flight into Egypt; by Circle of Jan Wellens de Cock (c. 1480-1527)
Portrait of a Musician Playing a Bagpipe; Northern Netherlandish School (1632)
St. Jerome; by Lodovico Carracci (1555-1619)
Allegory of Earth and Water; by Jan Brueghel the Younger (1601-1678)
Artists represented
- Jean ArpJean ArpJean Arp / Hans Arp was a German-French, or Alsatian, sculptor, painter, poet and abstract artist in other media such as torn and pasted paper....
- Paul-Émile BorduasPaul-Émile BorduasPaul-Émile Borduas was a Canadian painter known for his abstract paintings. He was also an activist for the separation of church and state, especially for art, in Quebec.- Biography :...
- Emily CarrEmily CarrEmily Carr was a Canadian artist and writer heavily inspired by the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. One of the first painters in Canada to adopt a post-impressionist painting style, Carr did not receive widespread recognition for her work until later in her life...
- Stanley Cosgrove
- Jacques de Tonnancour
- Eric GoldbergEric Goldberg (artist)Eric Goldberg was a Jewish-Canadian painter, born in 1890 in Berlin, Germany. Goldberg was influenced by the art of Pierre-Auguste Renoir at an early age...
- E. J. HughesE. J. HughesEdward John Hughes, CM, OBC was a Canadian artist.Hughes was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and spent a significant part of his childood in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Raised during the Depression he studied at the Vancouver School of Applied Art and Design where he graduated in 1933...
- Wassily KandinskyWassily KandinskyWassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
- Henry MooreHenry MooreHenry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
- John LymanJohn LymanJohn Lyman was the third head football coach for the Doane College Tigers located in Crete, Nebraska and he held that position for the 1894 season. His coaching record at Doane was 5 wins, 2 losses, and 0 ties. As of the conclusion of the 2007 season, this ranks him 14th at Doane in total wins...
- Jeanne Rhéaume
- Goodridge RobertsGoodridge RobertsWilliam Goodridge Roberts was a Canadian painter known for his landscape paintings and unassuming still lifes and interiors.Goodridge Roberts was the son of poet and novelist Theodore Goodridge Roberts and Frances Seymour Allen...
- Auguste RodinAuguste RodinFrançois-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
- Marian Scott
- Gentile TondinoGentile TondinoGentile Tondino was a Canadian educator, artist, who lived in Montreal, Quebec. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy...
- Tristan TondinoTristan TondinoTristan Tondino is a Canadian multimedia artist, writer and philosopher living in Montreal, Quebec.Tondino is the son and student of painter Gentile Tondino R.C.A...
- Louise Gadbois