Kirchhoff, Heinrich

Art collector, patron of the arts

born: 10.07.1874 in Essen-Rüttenscheid

died:29.10.1934 in Wiesbaden

"To be exhibited in Wiesbaden, to hang in the Kirchhoff collection, was a recommendation," recalled Conrad Felixmüller, one of the artists who had received patronage. Kirchhoff had come to Wiesbaden in 1908 and, financially independent thanks to his inheritance, had a stately villa built in the neoclassical style. Around 1914, he began to take a keen interest in the visual arts and their creators and to acquire their works. Initially, he favored representatives of a moderate naturalism, which extended to representatives of Impressionism, such as Max Liebermann, whom he commissioned to paint a portrait.

However, Kirchhoff was soon to turn his attention to the avant-garde, the Expressionists. In 1917, the collection with its progressive tendencies was shown to the public for the first time: Generously projected showrooms in the Neues Museum were devoid of art. Kirchhoff made up for this vacancy with his loans, including 76 top-class paintings.

The national resonance did not fail to materialize. In 1929, the art writer Mela Escherich described the situation in the gallery: "Modernism is happily represented, above all by the Kirchhoff collection with the magnificent Noldes, Franz Marc, Grosz, Chagall, Rohlfs, Kokoschka, the intimate cabinets of Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Klee, Beckmann."

What Kirchhoff had achieved through the joy of discovery was defamed by the National Socialists as "degenerate". In 1933, this ensemble was banned from the museum and dispersed after the death of its founder: a loss that cannot be compensated for.