Ben Uri Collection

Portrait of Charlotte

Artist information

Name Julius Rosenbaum (1879-1956)

Born Neuenbürg, Germany

Died The Hague, Netherlands

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Julius Rosenbaum was born into a Jewish family in Neuenbürg, Germany on 9 July 1879. In 1900, he spent a year in Paris studying at the Académie Julian, during a period when Henri Matisse, a former pupil, also returned to make use of the live models. Afterwards, Rosenbaum continued his studies at the Akademie der bildenden Künste in Munich (1901–5), in Breslau (1905–10) and Berlin under Lovis Corinth (1911–15), also attending the State Art School in Weimar and Berlin-Schöneberg. During the First World War he served with the German Army, then worked as a cartoonist for newspapers including 'ULK'. During the 1920s he became an exhibiting member of the Berlin Secession and set up artists' associations in Weimar and Berlin. In 1930 he married fellow artist Adèle Reifenberg (1893–1986). Each had a work included in the 'Exhibition of German-Jewish Artists' Work: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture' (5-15 June 1934) organised at the Parsons Gallery, London by German-Jewish emigre dealer, Carl Braunschweig (later Charles Brunswick), which included in total 221 artworks by 86 artists suffering persecution under the Nazi regime. Prior to migration, when banned from painting due to anti-Semitic legislation, he established the Jewish Artists’ Aid Organisation and taught crafts at Jewish boys’ schools. The couple fled to London in 1939, where exhibiting opportunities were limited during the war but he did exhibit two works including a coloured drawing entitled 'Departure of Jews from Berlin for Palestine' at the Ben Uri summer exhibition in 1944, while chiefly earning a living repairing Blitz-damaged houses and restoring china during the war. Postwar, between 1948 and 1956, the couple established a successful painting school, exhibiting alongside their pupils as the 'Belsize Group' and had a joint exhibition with Ruth Collet at Ben Uri's Portman Street Gallery in 1950. Julius Rosenbaum died in The Hague, Netherlands, on a visit to see a Rembrandt exhibition on 24 August 1956, and was buried in England. Ben Uri held a Memorial exhibition in 1957.

Object Details

Date 1945

Object type painting

Medium oil on canvas

Materials and techniques oil (medium) canvas (support)

Unframed 80 x 52 cm

Framed 89 x 62 cm

Signed (lower left) 'Julius Rosenbaum'

Acquisition presented by Dr. Alec Lerner and Lord Marks, 1950

Accession number 1987-341

Display status not on display

The sitter, Charlotte Melnikov (née Nissen), wife of Russian-born sculptor, Avram Melnikov, was also a painter and exhibited a still life of tulips at Ben Uri's Spring Exhibition by Contemporary Jewish Artists in 1948. Julius Rosenbaum's wife Adele Reifenberg also painted Charlotte, probably in the same sitting, since she wears the same outfit with a canary yellow cardigan and red, patterned scarf in both portraits which were exhibited together at Ben Uri in 1950.

Rosenbaum worked in a realistic expressive style and one reviewer (Barbara Wright, Arts Review, 14.10.57) remarked of his 1957 Memorial exhibition at Ben Uri Gallery that there was 'no gaiety' in his work - which she attributed to his experience as a refugee. His 'Portrait of Charlotte' challenges this assertion since inspite of the sitter's unsmiling expression, the bold palette and expressive brushstrokes conjur a lively presence.

Selected exhibition history

1950
Paintings, Drawings etc., by Julius Rosenbaum 1903-1949, Adele Reifenberg 1915-1949, Ruth Collet (Recent Work)
Ben Uri Gallery


1957
Julius Rosenbaum 1879-1956 Memorial Exhibition
Ben Uri Art Gallery


1970
Paintings from the Ben Uri Art Gallery
Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum


1980
Exhibition of Selected Works from the Permanent Collection of the Ben Uri Art Gallery
Ben Uri Gallery


2009
Homeless & Hidden 2: World Class Collection Homeless & Hidden
Ben Uri Gallery


2017
Refugees: The Lives of Others - German Refugee Artists to the UK
Ben Uri Gallery and Museum


2018
Finchleystrasse: German artists in exile in Great Britain and beyond 1933-45
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, London (Department of Culture and Education)


2019
Migrations: masterworks from the Ben Uri Collection
Gloucester Museum


Literature

'Finchleystrasse: German artists in exile in Great Britain and beyond 1933-45' (London: Ben Uri Gallery and Museum in association with the German Embassy London, 2018), p. 43.; Oil Paintings in Public Ownership in Camden (London: The Public Catalogue Foundation, 2013); Walter Schwab and Julia Weiner, eds., Jewish Artists: the Ben Uri Collection - Paintings, Drawings, Prints and Sculpture (London: Ben Uri Art Society in association with Lund Humphries Publishers Ltd, 1994), p. 89.

Portrait of Charlotte by Julius Rosenbaum

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Portrait of Charlotte by Julius Rosenbaum

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© Julius Rosenbaum estate