Walter Bondy

Collection of the artist's family
Thence by descent

Probably, Cassirer Gallery, Berlin, 1900
Vienna, Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien, Moderne auf der flucht, Österreichische KunstlerInnen in Frankreich 1938-1945 (Les Modernes s'enfuient, Des artistes autrichiens en France 1938-1945), June 4 - September 7, 2008

Andrea Winklbauer. ed., Moderne auf der flucht. Österreichische KünstlerInnen in Frankreich 1938-1945, exh. cat., Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien, Vienna, 2008, p. 11, illustrated

The following condition report was kindly provided by Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc.: This painting is still on its original stretcher and is unreinforced on the reverse. The canvas has relaxed slightly, but only needs to be tightened. The painting is quite noticeably dirty. The painting has probably never been cleaned, and a careful cleaning would have noticeable effect. There do not appear to be any retouches or any signs of damage, other than some frame abrasion, unrestored, on the right edge.
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.
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Walter Bondy was born into an Austrian Jewish industrialist family in Prague and raised in Vienna. In 1899, when Opening the Hat Box was painted, Vienna was in the midst of a burgeoning cultural and artistic revolution; Sigmund Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams was first published, the inaugural exhibition of the Vienna Secession had happened the year before, and the late-Romantic music of Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss was in the air. The young Bondy absorbed all of this as he developed artistically, poised on the brink of a great career.

Bondy moved to Berlin in 1900 to study at the Fine Arts Academy and the city provided a supportive environment, particularly as his cousin, Paul Cassirer, was running one the most influential galleries in the country. Cassirer played a critical role in promoting the French Impressionists and post-Impressionists to German collectors and institutions, exerting massive influence towards an embrace of modernism within monarchist Germany. The artist’s records show that Opening the Hat Box was brought to Berlin and exhibited at the Cassirer gallery, where it would have appropriately hung alongside paintings by the French Impressionist artists whose influence on Bondy is evident. Indeed, the intimate domestic space, complicated compositional arrangement and rigorous paint handling recalls works by such avant-garde artists at the time as Édouard Vuillard and Édouard Manet.