Richard Lindner

Acquired from the artist by Hans and Maria Eisner Lehfeldt
By descent to the present owner

Werner Spies, Richard Lindner: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, Munich, 1999, p. 151, cat. no. 193

This work is in very good condition overall; the sheet is rippling slightly; some surface soiling along the left edge; the top edge is cut unevenly; hinged verso to the backing board. Framed under glass.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Richard Lindner and Maria Eisner Lehfeldt

These eleven works by Richard Lindner are from a remarkable collection formed by an equally exceptional  woman whose friendship and dedication spanned the length of Lindner's career.

Lindner was one of the many artists who fled the rise of Nazism in Germany in 1933. He and his wife Elsbeth Schülein, a fashion illustrator, moved to Paris, where her work in fashion sustained them as Lindner struggled to adapt to the loss of his homeland.  

During their years in Paris, the Lindners  joined a circle of fellow exiled Jewish artists and intellectuals from Germany and central Europe.  Among them was Maria Eisner, founder of Alliance Photo, a consortium and agency of photo-journalists, with whom they became close confidants. Although Maria Eisner was born in Italy, she was educated in Germany and developed a lifelong bond with the Lindners. As World War II engulfed France, the Lindners, being German nationals, were arrested by French authorities and interned in separate camps. Elsbeth was released after a few months, probably through the help of friends in the fashion industry. She escaped via Casablanca to New York. In 1941 Lindner was released from detention and made his way via Lisbon to the United States.  Maria Eisner moved to New York after the war and married a physician, Hans Lehfeldt. 

Lindner's career in graphic art had stalled in Paris, but it sprang back to life in New York, partly thanks to the support of the circle Maria Eisner introduced him to, including Saul Steinberg, who would become a close friend. As his financial security increased, he was able to give up graphic design work and devote himself to his artistic practice.

The Eisner-Lehfeldt collection includes drawings and paintings which typify Lindner's distinctive style. Lindner's mother was a seamstress and corset maker and his  compositions spring from the depictions of street life which characterize German art during the Weimar era: the prostitutes, flaneurs, hustlers, gangsters, denizens of the underworld and innocents of Kirchner, Dix, Grosz and Schad.  Roaming the streets and department stores of New York, he found the same diversity, likening the pageant to a circus, so he dressed his characters in exaggerated circus-type costumes and added circus props like juggling balls, garishly-colored podiums and musical instruments.  His stylized, mechanical figures also owe a debt to Oskar Schlemmer and Fernand Leger, as can readily be seen in the works in this collection.

Maria Eisner and her husband remained close to Lindner throughout his life. Eisner's own career as a photo editor and agent flourished too;  in 1947 she brought together  five photo-journalists, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, David Seymour, George Rodger and William Vandivert, who formed the creative core of the Magnum photo agency.

Through exhibitions in New York at the influential Betty Parsons Gallery in the 1950s, Lindner was eventually associated with the Pop Art movement.  It was an association he resisted but nevertheless he was admired by emerging artists such as Larry Rivers and Andy Warhol, who found a lot in common with their interests. Art historians continue to allude to him as a precursor of the American Pop art movement.