Knud Larsen

Hans Jaretzki, Berlin (1890-1956; Bauhaus architect)
Thence by descent to the present owner, grandson of the above

The present work has been passed down through one family since circa 1922. It was always known within the family to have been acquired from an exhibition in Berlin, following the artist’s death. The first owner was Hans Jaretzki - a talented Bauhaus architect in Germany, who desiged and built some notable properties across Germany including the home of British Ambassador Sir Eric Phipps in Weisensee outside Berlin, before he fled the Nazi terror in 1934 with his family and settled in Hampstead, North London. They came with some prized possessions, including Larsen's Break at School, which hung proudly in the dining room for 38 years until Jaretzki wife's death in 1971, when the painting passed to their daughter Eve Haas. Years later Haas began researching a pocket book heirloom that her father had inherited from his great-grandfather Prince August of Prussia (1779-1843), the youngest nephew of King Frederick The Great. The Secrets of The Notebook, a global bestselling novel uncovering the Jaretzki royal family mystery, was subsequently written by Haas. A Break at School is being offered therefore, after over 100 years in the same private collection.

Knud Larsen studied painting at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts graduating in 1889. He had an illustrious career painting originally landscapes and genre and later portraiture. He was appointed a member of the Royal Academy General Assembly in 1898 and served as a member of the Charlottenborg Palace Exhibition Committee. He also served as a member of the General Art School Council and the Royal Art Academy Council. He was well awarded in his lifetime, including the Neuhausens Prize in 1893, Eckersberg medal in 1898, Thorvaldsen Medal in 1901 and the Serdin Hansens Prize twice in 1901 and 1905.