Hildebrand Gurlitt
| Hildebrand Gurlitt | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 September 1895 Dresden, German Empire |
| Died | 9 November 1956 (aged 61) Düsseldorf, West Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Occupation | Art dealer and historian |
| Known for | Art dealer during the Nazi era, war profiteering |
| Spouse(s) | Helene Hanke |
| Children |
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| Parent(s) |
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| Relatives |
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Hildebrand Gurlitt (15 September 1895 – 9 November 1956) was a German art dealer and art historian who traded in "degenerate art" during the Nazi era. His collection of 1,406 works (by Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, among others) was confiscated in 2012 by Bavarian authorities from the apartment of his son, Cornelius Gurlitt.
Gurlitt was born into an artistic family in Dresden in 1895. His father Cornelius Gurlitt was an architect and art historian, his brother Willibald a musicologist, his sister Cornelia a painter and his cousin Wolfgang was an art dealer as well. His grandmother Elisabeth Gurlitt was Jewish, which would prove problematic under Nazi rule: he was considered a "quarter-Jew" under the Nuremberg laws.
Gurlitt had a close relationship with his sister Cornelia (born 1890), who was an expressionist painter and was in contact with Chagall. She served in the First World War as a nurse and moved to Berlin shortly after the war. The lack of artistic recognition and depression led to her suicide in 1919; Gurlitt took care of her works, but part of it was destroyed by their mother after the death of their father.
In 1923 he married the ballet dancer Helene Hanke who was trained under expressionist dancer Mary Wigman. They had two children: Cornelius (1932–2014) and Renate (1935–2012).
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