(Warsaw 1883–1941 Cusset) La Grappe des Raisins, signed, dated Marcoussis 1920, watercolour, gouache on paper, laid down on card, 30.5 x 43 cm, stamps verso of the Landesmuseum Hanover and the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, framed, (PS)

Catalogue Raisonné:
Jean Lafranchis, Marcoussis, sa vie, son oeuvre, catalogue complet des peintures, fixés sur verre, aquarelles, dessins, gravure, Paris 1961, no. D. 32 (ill.) This work is the study for the picture, ‘Couteau et Raisins’ dated 1920, Lafranchis F.22

Provenance:
Dr Paul Erich Küppers, Hanover (until 1922)
Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers, Hanover - Moscow - Novosibirsk (1926 as a loan to the Provinzialkunstmuseum, later the Landeskunstmuseum, Hanover, sequestered as ‘degenerate’ in 1937.)
Kunsthandlung Hildebrand Gurlitt, Hamburg
Josef Haubrich, Cologne (1942 acquired by Gurlitt)
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne (inv. no. WRM 2857; acquired 1950 by the Stiftung Dr Haubrich after 1946)
Museum Ludwig, Cologne (inv. no. ML/Z 1985/57); transferred to the Wallraff-Richartz-Museum, returned to Jen Lissitzky in 2000
Private collection, Europe

Exhibited: 100. Ausstellung: Zehn Jahre Sturm, Gesamtschau. Berlin, Der Sturm, 1921, cat. no. 23
Expressionisme, Werken uit de verzameling Haubrich in het Wallraf Museum te Keulen, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam and Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, 1951/52, cat. no. 164
L’expressionisme dans le Musée Wallraf-Richartz de Cologne, Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1952, cat. no. 162
Louis Marcoussis, 1883–1941. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Gravuren 1910–1940, Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, 1960, cat. no. 5
Meisterblätter aus der Sammlung Josef Haubrich, Cologne, Museum Ludwig, 1989, cat. no. 248, full-page colour ill., p. 196

Literature and Illustrations:
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum Cologne, Führer durch die Gemäldegalerie, Cologne 1957, p. 115
Peter Fuchs (ed.), Josef Haubrich, Sammler und Stifter. Kunst des XX. Jahrhunderts in Köln, Cologne, Greven Verlag 1959, p.103, ill.55
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum der Stadt Köln, Verzeichnis der Gemälde, Cologne 1959, p. 103
Evelyn Weiss (ed.), Katalog der Gemälde des 20. Jahrhunderts, die älteren Generationen bis 1915, im Wallraf -Richartz-Museum - mit Teilen der Sammlung Ludwig - und im Kunstgewerbemuseum, Cologne 1974, no. 2857, ill. no.11
Handbuch Museum Ludwig, Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Gemälde, Skulpturen, Collagen, Objekte, Environments, Cologne, Museum Ludwig, 1979, p. 494f., colour ill. p. 495
Exh. cat., El Lissitzky 1890–1941, Retrospektive, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, and Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, Halle, 1988, ill. 243 (photo of the Kabinett der Abstrakten, Hanover, dated “1935”)
Melissa Müller and Monika Tatzkow, Verlorene Bilder, verlorene Leben. Jüdische Sammler und was aus ihren Werken wurde, Munich, Elisabeth Sandmann Verlag 2009, pp. 99–113 (Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers)

Louis Marcoussis has arranged this still life in the Cubist style, ordering the objects in geometrical forms on the light brown table. The bowl of grapes is positioned amongst the other objects to deliberately catch the viewer’s eye. The work clearly demonstrates the influence of Georges Braque, Pablo Picasso, Albert Gleisze and Jean Metzinger on Louis Marcoussis. Together with numerous other works, Sophie Lissitzky-Küppers had lent the painting “La grappe de raisins”, part of the estate of her late husband Paul Erich Küppers, to the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hanover on permanent loan in 1926. The loaned works were seized in 1937 as part of NS actions against “degenerate” art, and this still life was sold by the Hamburg art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt, subsequently appearing in the collection belonging to Cologne lawyer Josef Haubrich who gifted it to the city of Cologne in 1950. Sophie Lissitzky- Küppers, residing in the Soviet Union, made efforts to recover her property during her lifetime. The work was kept in custody by the Museum Ludwig in Cologne until its restitution in 2000 when it was returned to her son, Jen Lissitzky.