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    Artist

  • Oppenheimer, Joseph, 1876-1966

    • Title

  • Portrait of Rudolf Lachmann-Mosse as a Child

  • Physical Description

    1 painting : oil on canvas ; 37.5 in x 29 in, 95.25 cm x 73.7 cm

  • Date

    1920s

  • Notes

    Signed and dated by the artist in upper right-hand corner.

  • Summary

    The portrait depicts Rudolf-Lachmann Mosse as a child of about six or seven years old. He has short blonde hair parted on the side, blue eyes, wears a light blue outfit with a white collar and white shoes. He holds a ball and sits in a chair at a three quarter angle, smiling slightly.

  • Depicted

    Mosse, Rudolf Lachmann.

  • Subject

    Portraits, Boys; Portraits, Children

  • Genre

    Portraits

  • Medium

    Oil paintings; Paintings

  • Part Of

    Mosse Family collection ; addendum, AR 26136

  • Accession Number

  • URL

Biographical/Historical Information

Rudolf Lachmann-Mosse was born in Berlin in 1913, the middle child of Hans and Felicia Lachmann-Mosse. When Hitler came to power, the Mosses were forced out of Germany and the family's publishing empire was seized and ultimately dismantled. Following their exile, Rudolf went to Switzerland with his mother, where he attended the University of Zurich. He ultimately graduated with a Ph.D in economics in 1940, writing his thesis on international nitrogen cartels. After his graduation, he and his mother escaped Europe through unoccupied France, Spain, and Portugal thanks to a series of well placed bribes, and joined the rest of their family in America. Soon after his arrival, Rudolf enlisted in the American army. He served in the military until the end of the war, spending the bulk of his time in the Pacific theater. After he was discharged from the military, Rudolf settled in Arlington, Virginia, where he was an analyst at the US State Department in the Office of Intelligence Research and Analysis. He married Jutta Steinfeld five years later, and the couple had a daughter, Joy. Rudolf passed away in 1955 after a long battle with cancer. Source: https://mossefoundation.com/rudolf-lachmann-mosse/

Joseph or Josef Oppenheimer was a portrait painter, born in Würzburg, Germany. He studied at the Munich Academy of Art and traveled to Italy, London, and New York. He was friends with James Whistler, who persuaded him to join the Berlin Secession. He married his second cousin, Fanny, in 1908 and moved to Berlin. The couple emigrated to London once Hitler gained power in 1933, and Fanny made multiple trips back to Germany to get most of their possessions and his artwork. After his daughter married and moved to Canada, he split his time between Montreal and New York.

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Citation

Oppenheimer, Joseph: Portrait of Rudolf Lachmann-Mosse as a Child, Leo Baeck Institute, 2024.79.