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Lot Essay
Dr. Ursel Berger has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Albert Rothbart (Roothbert), a German financier and partner at Hallgarten & Company, moved to New York from Frankfurt at the turn of the 20th century. After growing up in a family of art collectors, Rothbart amassed a notable collection of his own featuring Egyptian antiquities and tribal art, in addition to a myriad of Modern European and American masters including Stuart Davis, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, among many others. At around the time of his retirement in the mid-1920s, Rothbart commissioned a portrait bust by Kolbe and purchased other works by the artist including the present lot. In the early 1930s, Albert met and married Antonie "Tony" von Horn, a photographer for Harpers and Vanity Fair. The two were involved in the New York art scene, with close relationships with Hilla von Rebay, Frank Crowninshield and Arnold Genthe, and European artist emigrés including George Grosz and Alexander Archipenko. Albert Rothbart described his chief pleasure of collecting as a means to "create an atmosphere which would add rhythm and color to the humdrum of daily life."
Albert Rothbart (Roothbert), a German financier and partner at Hallgarten & Company, moved to New York from Frankfurt at the turn of the 20th century. After growing up in a family of art collectors, Rothbart amassed a notable collection of his own featuring Egyptian antiquities and tribal art, in addition to a myriad of Modern European and American masters including Stuart Davis, John Marin, Marsden Hartley, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, among many others. At around the time of his retirement in the mid-1920s, Rothbart commissioned a portrait bust by Kolbe and purchased other works by the artist including the present lot. In the early 1930s, Albert met and married Antonie "Tony" von Horn, a photographer for Harpers and Vanity Fair. The two were involved in the New York art scene, with close relationships with Hilla von Rebay, Frank Crowninshield and Arnold Genthe, and European artist emigrés including George Grosz and Alexander Archipenko. Albert Rothbart described his chief pleasure of collecting as a means to "create an atmosphere which would add rhythm and color to the humdrum of daily life."