Bekker vom Rath, Hanna (actually Johanna Emy Adele), née vom Rath

Painter, collector, patron, art dealer

Born: 07.09.1893 in Frankfurt am Main

died: 08.08.1983 in Bad Nauheim

Bekker vom Rath, whose father Walther vom Rath was a lawyer on the supervisory board of Farbwerke Hoechst and whose mother Maximiliane, née Meister, came from the founding dynasty of the world-famous company, grew up in an art-loving atmosphere. She received painting lessons from Marie Steinhausen, the wife of the writer Alfons Paquet, and later from Ottilie Wilhelmine Roederstein, who recommended her to the circle around the academy director Adolf Hölzel. In Ida Kerkovius, one of Hölzel's master students, she gained a teacher and friend for life. The Stuttgart circle introduced her to the current artistic views of Hölzel's students Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer and Johannes Itten. She met Paul Bekker in 1918. The couple married in 1920 and bought a house in Hofheim. From 1924 onwards, the "Blue House", as Kerkovius called it, was to become a focal point of art. In 1927, the extraordinary couple became estranged. From 1928 onwards, Bekker vom Rath intensified her encounters with Alexej von Jawlensky, whom she portrayed, while he created nudes of her. The founding of the "Association of Friends of Alexej von Jawlensky's Art" in 1929 was largely her doing.

During the National Socialist dictatorship, she worked in Hofheim and Berlin as a mediator for the works of ostracized artists. In 1947, she co-founded the "Frankfurter Kunstkabinett". From then on, she used her double name as a trademark. In exhibitions, she helped art that had been ostracized during National Socialism to find its rightful place. From the 1950s onwards, Bekker vom Rath made a name for herself as an "ambassador of art" with spectacular exhibition tours. In the meantime, her art collection had grown into an impressive ensemble; early acquisitions included sculptures by Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Alexander Archipenko. Most of the works were by Schmidt-Rottluff, followed by Kerkovius and Jawlensky. A small part has been integrated into the collection of the Museum Wiesbaden.