Portrait of Lodewijk Schelfhout attributed to Walter Bondy (1880-1940)
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 71 cm x 58 cm.
Portrait of Lodewijk Schelfhout attributed to:
Walter Bondy (1880-1940)
Circa 1903-1913
Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 71 cm high x 58 cm wide.
The stretcher denoted with a label inscribed in hand-writing:
Bondy, No 12241
Portrat di ??alers ?eh
Provenance:
The picture went out to South Africa prior to the 2nd world war with Walter Lange who emigrated from Berlin. He had inherited it from his father Dr Hans Lange who was an art collector
Sold 2008- Walter Lange estate.
Sold 2016-Norman Greenberg estate.
Walter Bondy (1880-1940)
Walter Bondy was born on the 28th December 1880 in Prague, into an Austrian Jewish industrialist family. His parents were Otto Bondy (1844-1928) and Julie Cassirer (1860-1914). He was raised in Vienna and graduated from the Academy of Fine Art in Vienna (1898/99), from the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin under George Masson (1900-02), and from the private art school of Simon Hollósy, the Académie Holosoi, in Munich (1902/03).
In 1903 he moved to Paris where he lived until 1914. He was a co-founder and member of the ‘Dômiers’ an artistic group of European artists who frequented the Café du Dôme in Montparnasse. This artistic and intellectual circle included Guillaume Apollinaire, Rudolf Levy and Hans Purrmann. At this time the community of German-speaking and Jewish artists also included Jules Pascin, Amadeo Modigliani, Moïse Kisling, Gertrude Stein and Pablo Picasso.
In 1905 the Fauves (‘wild beasts’) exhibition at the Salon d’Automne made a strong impression on this group, exemplified by the work of Henri Matisse. In 1906 Bondy joined the Berlin Secession and after the union split in 1914, he joined the Free Berlin Secession. During this period, he was regularly represented at their exhibitions with still-lifes and portraits. He also exhibited in the pre-war Salon des Indépendents and the Salon d’Automne.
His work was inspired by the impressionists and also strongly influenced by Van Gogh, Cezanne and Matisse.
Walter Bondy’s cousin Paul Cassirer ran his gallery ‘The Art Salon’ in Berlin and exhibited works by the Dômiers artists, including works by Bondy. In 1914 Bondy moved back to Berlin with his wife Cecile Houdy and daughter Rachel Andrée and lived there until 1932. Due to the growing anti-Semitism in Germany he moved to Sanary-sur-Mer in southern France and lived there during the war where he met and married Camille Bertron in1937.
At this time Paul and Bruno Cassirer looked after Bondy’s apartment in Berlin and his art collection, including his own paintings. In 1934 with the deteriorating political situation they relocated his belongings to Vienna which were housed in his father’s factory “Kabelwerk”. In 1938 the factory was occupied by the Nazis. From then on the bulk of his work is considered to be lost