For sale: modernist masterpiece used to pay for dental work
Painted in Glasgow by a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany
A modernist masterpiece painted in Glasgow by a Jewish refugee who fled Nazi Germany is to be sold for the first time.
The Peasant and his Wife, by Polish‑Jewish artist Jankel Adler, was given to a Scottish family to pay for dental work during the war and has been in their care ever since, reports The Herald.
The artwork is now set to go under the hammer alongside works by key European artists, including Klimt, Picasso and Braque, at an auction in London.
The painting, which is expected to fetch between £50,000 and £80,000, was created while Adler was living in Glasgow and was part of an artistic circle that included the celebrated Scottish Colourist John Duncan Fergusson and his dance pioneer partner Margaret Morris.
It has remained in the same Glasgow family since the late owner’s grandfather accepted it as payment in kind during the Second World War.
Described as a “rare example of European Modernism”, the painting will be offered for sale at Lyon & Turnbull’s Modern Made auction next month.
The Peasant and his Wife, which depicts two careworn workers standing side by side, was painted during the period Adler – a major figure in the European avant-garde – spent in Glasgow as a refugee between 1941 and 1942.
Adler was one of many high-profile Jewish artists to leave Germany from 1933 following the rise of the Nazi regime, which declared his work “degenerate” and confiscated several of his paintings from German museums.
Forced to flee, Adler travelled widely over the following years, living mainly in Paris, where he encountered leading figures in the art world, including Pablo Picasso.
Lyon & Turnbull’s senior fine art specialist and co-head of the Modern Made auction, Simon Hucker, said: “Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Adler joined the Polish army and was evacuated from Dunkirk to Scotland, arriving on June 22, 1940. After medical discharge, he moved to Glasgow in January 1941.
“Adler was quickly welcomed into the city’s thriving art scene, on which he had a tremendous impact. He held his first exhibition in Glasgow shortly afterwards in the studio of Jewish sculptor Benno Schotz.”