Shriveled Leaves, 1817

Not on View

Medium

pen and black ink with touches of black wash over graphite on wove paper

Dimensions

sheet: 21.9 x 16.4 cm (8 5/8 x 6 7/16 in.)

Credit Line

Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, Patrons' Permanent Fund

Accession Number

2007.111.137

Artists / Makers

Friedrich Olivier (artist) German, 1791 - 1859

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

signed and dated in gray ink, below larger study: FO [in monogram] /den 31te Januar 1817.; and under the smaller study in pen and black ink: den 8te Februar.; verso, at bottom right in modern graphite: 74

Provenance

Josef Schmidl [1852-1916] and his wife Maria [1858-1934], granddaughter of Friedrich Olivier; by descent to their daughter, Marianne Schmidl [1890-1942];[1] (sale, C. G. Boerner, Leipzig, 28 April 1939, no. 15, pl. V). Carl Heumann [1886-1945], Chemnitz (Lugt 2841a). Helmut Domitzlaff, Munich. (Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich), in 1996. Wolfgang Ratjen, Munich; purchased 2007 by NGA.[2]

[1] When Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1938, Marianne Schmidl was subjected to persecution as a Jew. This led to her immediate involuntary retirement from her position at the Austrian National Library in Vienna. Due to her resulting precarious financial situation, Ms. Schmidl was forced to sell off the valuable drawings that she had inherited from her parents in order to pay the newly imposed "Jewish Property Tax" and for her general livelihood. Marianne Schmidl was deported to Poland on 9 April 1942 where she was killed.

[2] In 2016, the heirs of Marianne Schmidl and the National Gallery of Art came to a mutually acceptable agreement by which the Olivier remains in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. A second drawing from her collection (Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, A Branch with Shriveled Leaves, formerly NGA 2007.111.160) was returned to the family.

Associated Names

Boerner LLC, C.G.
Domitzlaff, Helmut
Galerie Arnoldi-Livie
Heumann, Carl
Schmidl, Josef and Maria
Schmidl, Marianne
Stiftung Ratjen

Exhibition History

2010: German Master Drawings from the Wolfgang Ratjen Collection, 1580 - 1900, NGA, 2010: 29, 37, no. 55, under nos. 46/47, 54, 58, and 91.

Bibliography

1938: Grothe, Ludwig. Die Brüder Olivier und die deutsche Romantik. Berlin, 1938: 147, 390 (reprod. 152, fig. 86).

1942: Schneider, Arthur von. Deutsche Romantiker-Zeichnungen. Munich, 1942: xi, no. 16 (reprod).