Martin Birnbaum
Miskolc, Hungary, 1878 - 1970, New York
https://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/martin-birnbaum-papers-8888
Martin Birnbaum, art dealer, friend of artists and confidant of the rich and the celebrated, died yesterday at Lenox Hill Hospital. He was 92 years old.
In the art world of the Unit ed States and Europe from 1910 into the forties, the ele gant, persuasive and knowl edgeable Martin Birnbaum cut a substantial figure.
He gave Paul Manship, the sculptor, his first showing; he organized Maxfield Parrish's first one?man exhibition, and he helped to introduce Käthe Kollwitz, Kandinsky, Bakst and Jacovleff to the United States. In addition, he said in his auto biography, “The Last Romantic”:
“I was probably the first person in America to purchase or exhibit the works of such men as Lehmbruck, Koko schka, Gargalo, Feininger, Klee, Pascin, Ensor, Munch and others.”
Among Mr. Birnbaum's clients Over the years were Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft of Cincin nati; Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr.; Jacob Ruppert, the brewer and former owner of the New York Yankees; Mrs. Gustave Radeke, a Rhode Island art patron; Henry D. McIlhenny, the collector, and Grenville Lindall Winthrop, a Massachu setts art lover.
He helped Mr. Winthrop to assemble a collection of the paintings and drawings of Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. This, with other notable works gath ered by Mr. Birnbaum, was given to the Fogg Museum of Harvard University and is now one of the foundations of its reputation.
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A Sinclair Classmate
For Upton Sinclair, an old friend and City College class mate, the dealer poured out his immense art learning, with which the writer endowed Lan ny Budd, the hero of his 11? volume novel?series.
“Armed with Martin's vast knowledge, Lanny could be come a pal of Hermann Goering and sell him wonderful paint ings, or sell some of the won derful paintings Goering had stolen,” Mr. Sinclair said. He added that Lanny Budd's “art alibi” permitted him to travel to every country of Europe.
As a thank?you Mr. Sinclair put his Hungarian?born friend into the novel thinly disguised as Zoltan Kerteszi. Kerteszi is the Hungarian equivalent for the German Birnbaum, which means “pear tree.”
In 1934, Mr. Birnbaum was named commissioner of the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Two years later, at the invitation of the Italian Government, he helped to or ganize in Venice as internation al retrospective portrait show of 19th?century artists.
He lived in Venice from 1936 until the outbreak of World War II. He traveled in the so ciety of princesses, countesses, millionaires and artists. He got to know Sinclair Lewis, Doro thy Thompson, Somerset Maugham, Dorothy Caruso, Peggy Guggenheim and Artur Rubinstein.
Attended City College
Mr. Birnbaum was born in Miskolcz, Hungary, on May 10, 1878, the son of an engraver who brought his family to New York in 1883.
Martin attended City College and, under the tutelage of Leopold Lichtenberg, learned to play the violin. He wanted to train as a professional (all his life he played for his friends), but his father sent him to Co lumbia to become a lawyer. He obtained his degree in 1901 and practiced real?estate law for a few years.
On a holiday on Nantucket he met William Verplanck Bir ney, the painter, and through him he entered the world of art and became acquainted “with celebrities who seemed romantic and exciting.”
Mr. Birnbaum, of medium height, carried himself with military erectness; his face was set off by a guardsman's care fully trimmed mustache; he was impeccably tailored.
Because of his ready charm and his skill with the violin, he was taken up by the well?to?do, including Mrs. Annie Bertram Webb, the patroness of the opera star Geraldine Farrar. Through Mrs. Webb he met Gertrude Stein, Isadora Duncan, Norman Douglas, Maxim Gorky, Richard Strauss and a bevy of artists and members of they European nobility. He also got, to learn a great deal about art, for he spent much of his time in museums.
Headed Gallery Here
In 1910 Mr. Birnbaum be came manager of the American branch of the Berlin Photo graphic Company, which pub lished reproductions of paint ings. Under his direction, the concern opened an art gallery at 305 Madison Avenue, where for six years he mounted exhi bitions and sold art works. Among the artists he exhibited or encouraged were John Sloan, Eugene Higgins and Albert Sterner.
In 1916 he joined Scott & Fowles, the art dealers, and he was a member of that concern for 10 years.
Retiring as an active dealer in 1926, Mr. Birnbaum was Mr. Winthrop's agent for about 15 years. He also traveled, espe cially in the Far East, and wrote two books about his experi ences: “Angkor and the Man darin Road” and “Vanishing Eden.” His other books were “Oscar Wilde: Fragments and Memories” and “Jacovleff and Other Artists.”
In his final years Mr. Birn baum, a bachelor, had an apart ment at 200 East 66th Street, in which he had a few paint ings, including one of himself playing the violin by Jacovleff, and many Oriental art objects.
http://www.nytimes.com/1970/07/24/archives/martin-birnbaum-is-dead-at-92-art-dealer-traveler-and-writer-friend.html
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Last Updated8/7/24
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