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    Artist

  • Unknown Artist

    • Title

  • Wedding portrait of Ida Bechmann

  • Physical Description

    1 painting : oil on canvas ; 36" x 26.75", 91.5 cm x 68 cm, + frame (39" x 30")

  • Date

    1910

  • Notes

    Biographical information came from the book "From Generation to Generation: A Family Story" by Ruth Rahn Budd (st 6165)

    Back of the painting has a label from the Turner Art Gallery of Denver, CO dated July 13, 1961, with number 55983.

  • Summary

    Portrait shows a young woman in a white wedding dress, sitting in a chair and turned at a three quarters angle to face the viewer. Her blonde hair and dress is Edwardian in style (buttons down the front, short sleeves, and much use of lace). She has a gold necklace and holds a small bunch of purple flowers.

  • Depicted

    Bechmann, Ida, 1888-1978

  • Subject

    Women, Portraits

  • Genre

    Portraits

  • Medium

    Paintings

  • Part Of

    Rahn Family Collection, AR 25538

  • Accession Number

  • URL

Biographical/Historical Information

Ida Bechmann (1888-1978) was born Ida Metzger, the eldest child of Max and Caroline Metzger of Nuremberg. She married Hugo Bechmann (1878-1942) in 1910. Hugo Bechmann was the owner of a mirror glass factory, founded in the 1840s as W. Bechmann, but renamed under Hugo Bechmann as the Bayerische Spiegel- und Spiegelglasfabriken AG. Their daugher Lilli Bechmann was born in 1911 in Fürth, Germany. Ida and Hugo moved to Berlin in 1930, the same year their daughter Lilli began her studies at the University in Freiburg. With the rise of the Nazi party, Ida and Hugo left Germany for Sweden. Hugo died in Sweden in 1942, from complications during surgery. In April 1945, Lilli and her husband Alfred Rahn were successful in bringing Ida to the United States from Sweden. Ida later changed her surname to Beckman. After staying with the Rahns in Denver for a short while she decided to find a job and live on her own. She eventually found a position in the dietary kitchens of the National Jewish Hospital in Denver until she retired. Ida Bechmann died in 1978.

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Citation

Unknown Artist: Wedding portrait of Ida Bechmann, Leo Baeck Institute, 2023.03.