Portraits show who we are and who we would like to be. They are a medium of self-presentation, but they also tell us something about the society in which they were created. Engaging with art and going to the studio were part of the self-image of the middle classes, which also included Jews from the middle of the 19th century as a result of Jewish emancipation. Those who could afford it had their portrait painted. Bourgeois portraits were exhibited in public or presented in the drawing room at home. In addition to their representative function, family portraits and ancestral galleries also had a commemorative function within the family.
The portraits of Fanny and Lehmann Bernheimer, founders of the well-known art and antiques house, or of the brewer Josef Schülein and his wife Ida tell the stories of Jewish families in Munich, most of whom started out in the Bavarian rural communities. The painting of the Lippschütz family from Hürben shows that bourgeois portraits were also created there. Moving to the city opened up new paths in life; the portraits of their ancestors reminded them of their own origins and the long road to equality. In this level of the exhibition, we trace the stories of five Jewish families in Munich.
Portrait of Margarethe Born, Hugo von Habermann, 1895, Photo: Franz Kimmel / Jewish Museum Munich
A boy in a sailor suit, a lady with a beret and oversized puffed sleeves, a rabbi with an open prayer book. In its exhibition "Picture Stories. Portraits of Munich Jews", the Jewish Museum Munich shows well-known and forgotten Munich faces and asks: Who had their portrait taken by whom? How did they want to be seen? Who did they want to portray?
Visiting the studio was part of the self-image of the Munich bourgeoisie, which included Jews from the mid-19th century onwards. Their portraits tell of their contribution to urban society, but also of the long road to equality and their struggle for visibility. The exhibition traces the stories of around 40 portraits and shows the diversity of Jewish identities.
From 1933, the situation of Jewish artists and clients changed abruptly. Munich residents, who just a few years earlier had their portraits taken as equal members of the city's society, were systematically disenfranchised and persecuted. Many of the portraits on display survived in exile and were long forgotten in Munich.
May 15, 2024 to March 2, 2025
www.juedisches-museum-muenchen.de
Portrait of Hans Lamm, Unknown (KL-M.), around 1950, Photo: Eva Jünger © Jüdisches Museum München
