L’étang

After briefly passing through the popular art gallery Galerie Simon, the present work entered the collection of the actors Emil & Auguste ‘Gussy’ Jannings in the mid-1920s. One of the original owners of the work, Emil Jannings, was a Swiss-born German actor who went on to be the first ever Oscar recipient for Best Actor in 1929 for his roles in Josef von Sternberg’s The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh directed by Victor Fleming. A year later, he starred in Blue Angel together with Marlene Dietrich. However, due to his collaboration with the National Socialist regime after their rise to power in 1933, he was blacklisted from the film industry after the Second World War. Gussy Jannings (née Holl) was a silent film actor like her husband and performed at the Berlin cabaret “Schall und Rauch”, founded by Max Reinhardt. She was the inspiration for various works by Walter Mehring and Kurt Tucholsky. The work remained in the collection of Gussy until 1967 when it was then passed to her heirs for generations until it was inherited by the current owners.