Theodor Gustav Pauli (usually Gustav Pauli) (2 February 1866, Bremen – 8 July 1938, Munich) was a German

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

and museum director in

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

and

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

Early life and career

Gustav Pauli was the son of Bremen city senator and mayor, Alfred Pauli (1827–1915). He studied art history in

Strasbourg Strasbourg ( , ; ; ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and largest city of the Grand Est Regions of France, region of Geography of France, eastern France, in the historic region of Alsace. It is the prefecture of the Bas-Rhin Departmen ...

, and then in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

under

Anton Heinrich Springer Anton Heinrich Springer (13 July 182531 May 1891) was a German art historian and writer. Early life Springer was born in Prague, where he studied philosophy and history at Charles University, earning a Ph.D. Taking an interest in art, he made s ...

. Pauli wrote his thesis on the Renaissance in Bremen and graduated in Leipzig in 1889. He worked as a research assistant in the

Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden The Kupferstich-Kabinett (English: Collection of Prints, Drawings and Photographs) is part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen (State Art Collections) of Dresden, Germany. Since 2004 it has been located in Dresd ...

alongside

Max Lehrs Max Lehrs (24 June 1855, in Berlin – 12 November 1938, in Dresden) was a German Art history, art historian and long-time director of the Kupferstichkabinett, Dresden, Dresden Kupferstichskabinett, 1896–1904, and 1908–24, with the i ...

from 1889 until 1891. When Springer died in 1891, Pauli applied to study under

Jacob Burckhardt Carl Jacob Christoph Burckhardt (; ; 25 May 1818 – 8 August 1897) was a Swiss historian of art and culture and an influential figure in the historiography of both fields. His best known work is '' The Civilization of the Renaissance in ...

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

. Burckhardt, upon discovering that Pauli had spent time with the prickly Springer, declared that Springer's former students were "unteachable", but accepted him anyway.

Bremen

In the summer of 1899, Pauli was appointed to the

Kunsthalle Bremen The Kunsthalle Bremen is an art museum in Bremen, Germany. It is located close to the Bremen Old Town on the "Culture Mile" (). The Kunsthalle was built in 1849, enlarged in 1902 by architect Eduard Gildemeister, and expanded several more times, ...

. He engaged the gallery with modern German art, including the first monographic (and sadly, posthumous) exhibition of work by

Paula Modersohn-Becker Paula Modersohn-Becker (8 February 1876 – 20 November 1907) was a German Expressionist painter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She is noted for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portraits. She is conside ...

in 1908. He also collected a large number of German and French Impressionist works, which today form the core of the Kunsthalle's collection. In 1911, his purchase of

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

's ''Poppy Field'' caused a protest, led by

Carl Vinnen Carl Vinnen (28 August 1863, Bremen - 16 April 1922, Munich) was a German landscape painter. He was also a writer, on various topics of local interest, under the pseudonym "Johann Heinrich Fischbeck". Life and work He was born to Johann Christ ...

, a German painter from

Worpswede Worpswede (Northern Low Saxon: ''Worpsweed'') is a municipality in the Osterholz-Scharmbeck, district of Osterholz, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teufelsmoor, northeast of Bremen (city), Bremen. The small town itself is located n ...

. Pauli's preference for modern works was seen by some, such as the painter, poet and critic Arthur Fitger, as both dissolute and irrelevant. Like his contemporary gallerist

Hugo von Tschudi Hugo Egidius von Tschudi (7 February 1851 – 23 November 1911) was an Austrian-born Swiss art historian, patron and museum curator. He most notably served as Director of the National Gallery (Berlin) from 1896 to 1908, as well as of the Ba ...

, Pauli collected works of modern painting at a time when it was deeply unattractive to the broader public, and unappreciated by many art critics.

Hamburg

In 1914, Pauli succeeded

Alfred Lichtwark Alfred Lichtwark (14 November 1852 – 13 January 1914) was a German art historian, museum curator, and art educator in Hamburg. He is one of the founders of museum education and the art education movement. Background and career Alfred Lic ...

as director of the

Kunsthalle Hamburg The Hamburger Kunsthalle is the art museum of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the largest art museums in the country. It consists of three connected buildings, dating from 1869 (main building), 1921 (Kuppelsaal) and ...

. At Hamburg, he oversaw the opening of the "new building" in 1919, and used the additional display space afforded by the enlarged gallery to reorganise the hanging of the collection into a chronological format. He also opened a Print Room in the Kunsthalle in 1922, reflecting an interest first sparked in Dresden. Pauli acquired more modern works, following Lichtwark's lead, including

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French Modernism, modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism (art movement), R ...

's ''Nana'' of 1877. Pauli spoke at the funeral of his friend, the great "image historian"

Aby Warburg Aby Moritz Warburg (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the ''Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg'' (Warburg Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, which was later m ...

, in 1929. A fire in the Glass Palace in Munich in 1931 destroyed many important works which had been borrowed from the Kunsthalle Hamburg collection. A

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

was given to Pauli in that year. In 1933, Pauli signed his name to the

Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State officially translated into English as the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State was a document presented on 11 November 1933 at the Albert Hall in Leipzi ...

. Despite this, with the early stages of the Nazi attack on modern art and Pauli's public friendships with leading Jewish intellectuals, including

Erwin Panofsky Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 – March 14, 1968) was a German-Jewish art historian whose work represents a high point in the modern academic study of iconography, including his hugely influential ''Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art ...

, he rapidly fell out of favour and was dismissed. His successor, Harald Busch, continued to defend the collection of modern art in the Kunsthalle.

Life post-1933

The

Carl Schurz Carl Christian Schurz (; March 2, 1829 – May 14, 1906) was a German-American revolutionary and an American statesman, journalist, and reformer. He migrated to the United States after the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and became a prominent ...

Society sponsored Pauli on a lecture tour of the United States in 1935. His autobiography, ''Erinnerungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten'', was published in 1936.''Erinnerungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten''. Tübingen: Wunderlich Verlag, 1936. On 19 July 1937, the

Degenerate Art Exhibition The Degenerate Art exhibition () was an art exhibition organized by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi Party in Munich from 19 July to 30 November 1937. The exhibition presented 650 works of art, confiscated from German museums, and was staged in count ...

opened in Munich, which encouraged the public denigration of modern art. The important collections of modern art that Pauli had spent years building and defending in Bremen and Hamburg were dismantled. Pauli died in Munich on 8 July 1938.

Major works

*''Gainsborough, Künstlermonographie''. Bielefeld & Leipzig: Verlag von Velhagen & Klasing, 1904. *''Venedig''. 3rd edition, Leipzig: Verlag E. U. Seemann, 1906. *(as editor) ''Philipp Otto Runge. Bilder und Bekenntnisse''. Berlin: Furche-Verlag, 1918. *''Die Kunst und die Revolution''. Berlin: Verlag Bruno Cassirer, 1921. *''Die Hamburger Meister der guten alten Zeit''. Munich: Hyperion Verlag, 1925. *''Die Kunst des Klassizismus und der Romantik''. Berlin: Propyläen Verlag, 1925. *''Paula Modersohn-Becker''. Berlin: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1934. *''Erinnerungen aus sieben Jahrzehnten''. Tübingen: Wunderlich Verlag, 1936.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pauli, Gustav 1866 births 1938 deaths German art historians German male non-fiction writers