Franz Heckendorf (1888-1962) German
"Portrait of Imogen Kosmack"
Signed and dated (19)52, oil on board, 63cm by 48cm

Provenance: Hilda Kosmack, thence by descent

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Born in Berlin in 1888, Franz Heckendorf began painting in an Impressionist style, first exhibiting at the Berlin Secession in 1909, however, after his engagement in the First World War as a fighter pilot, he turned towards Expressionism.
During the 1920's and '30's he travelled extensively throughout Croatia and Italy, his paintings of this period depict the Mediterranean light through intense colours and a dynamic style influenced by the Expressionist painters, Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.
During the Weimar Republic (1918 - 1933), Heckendorf was considered a "painter of the republic" and his paintings were collected by prominent politicians and the then Chancellor. However, this success was cut short when in 1937 the Nazi regime deemed his work 'degenerate'. He was later imprisoned in 1943 (given a ten-year sentence) for helping Jews to escape to Switzerland. He was freed by U.S. troops in 1945. On his release he worked in Vienna at the Academy of Fine Arts, and afterwards in Munich until his death in 1962.
Heckendorf's paintings can be found in the Saltzburg Museum, the Berlinische Gallerie, the Wilhelm Lehmbruch Museum in Duisburg, the Brohan Museum, Berlin and other museums throughout Germany.
Lots 145 and 160 have descended from the Estate of Hilda Kosmack (mother of Imogen Kosmack), Heckendorf's life partner who through her first marriage owned Hotel Schloss am Molchowsee. The hotel became a popular meeting place for diplomats and prominent celebrities of the day. In order to protect herself, her British citizenship and the Jewish guests at the hotel, Hilda joined the National Socialist Party in 1933 as not to arouse any suspicion and is said to have entertained many members of the Third Reich including Adolf Hitler himself.