The origins of Rosenberg & Stiebel can be traced to nineteenth-century Frankfurt am Main. There, Jakob Rosenbaum began dealing in art and antiques around 1860, initially focusing primarily on porcelain, ceramics, and works of medieval and Renaissance art.[1]
Under Jakob’s son Isaak Rosenbaum, the emphasis increasingly shifted toward Old Master paintings. As Isaak had no children, several nephews became involved in the business, including Saemy and Raphael Rosenberg and Hans and Eric Stiebel. In this way, the firm developed into a family enterprise that would ultimately operate in several European cities as well as in New York.
From Frankfurt to Amsterdam, London and Paris
With the rise of National Socialism, the position of the Jewish family in Germany became increasingly precarious. Isaak Rosenbaum transferred a substantial part of the business to Amsterdam. There, the family operated, among other entities, through N.V. Internationale Antiquiteitenhandel and later I. Rosenbaum N.V. The Amsterdam firm continued to exist after the Second World War.[2]
At the same time, an international network of related businesses emerged. Saemy and Raphael Rosenberg opened a gallery in London, while Hans Stiebel operated Stiebel et Cie in Paris. There, he specialized particularly in eighteenth-century French furniture and decorative arts.
Rosenberg & Stiebel in New York
In 1939, Eric Stiebel moved to New York and established Rosenberg & Stiebel there. After the war, Saemy Rosenberg and Hans Stiebel joined him. From New York, the firm developed into an important intermediary between European private collections and the rapidly expanding American museum market.[1]
The dealership thus operated at the highest level of the international art market. Its private clients included collectors such as Robert Lehman, J. Paul Getty, Jack and Belle Linsky, and Jayne and Charles Wrightsman. Major American museums also purchased works directly from the firm.[1]
One of its best-known sales was the Mérode Triptych, attributed to Robert Campin and his workshop. Rosenberg & Stiebel sold the celebrated Early Netherlandish altarpiece to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1956, where it is now one of the most important works in The Cloisters.
Dutch and Flemish Old Masters
Dutch and Flemish painting formed an important part of the firm’s stock. These were not merely works that appeared briefly on the market. Many had long histories in princely, aristocratic and banking collections before being sold again through Rosenberg & Stiebel.
A good example is Frans Hals’s Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater. The painting belonged to the Rothschild collection in Vienna, was confiscated by the Nazis in 1938, and was restituted to the family after the war. Baroness Clarice de Rothschild subsequently sold it to Rosenberg & Stiebel, which in turn sold the work to the Cleveland Museum of Art in 1948.[4]
The firm’s longstanding connections with the Rothschild family also remained important. The Frick Collection, for example, records the 1949 sale of Jacob van Ruisdael’s Landscape with a Footbridge, which came from the restituted collection of Baron Louis von Rothschild.[1]
From private collection to museum
The provenance of Bartholomäus Bruyn’s Portrait of Jakob Omphalius likewise illustrates how complex the history of a painting can be. The work had previously belonged to the collection of Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, was sold under duress to the city of Frankfurt in 1938, and was restituted to his heirs in 1948. Around 1950, the painting was probably with Rosenberg & Stiebel in New York. Since 2020, it has formed part of the collection of the Mauritshuis.[5]
Examples such as these explain why the name Rosenberg & Stiebel appears so frequently today in the provenance records of important Old Master paintings. For decades, the firm stood between European collectors selling works and American museums and private collectors who were building substantial collections.
The Rosenberg & Stiebel archive
Rosenberg & Stiebel is of exceptional importance for present-day provenance research because much of the firm’s business archive has survived. In 2022, Gerald G. Stiebel donated the historic gallery archive to The Frick Collection. The archive contains documentation relating to transactions, works of art, correspondence, photographs, card files, invoices and other business records.[6]
The archive covers not only Rosenberg & Stiebel in New York, but also the earlier family businesses in Frankfurt and Amsterdam and the related firms in London and Paris. As a result, paintings can sometimes be reconnected to the firm through historic photographs, stock cards, correspondence and sales records.
Following Eric Stiebel’s death in 2000, the business was continued by the next generation under the name Stiebel Ltd. In this way, an art-dealing family whose origins lay in nineteenth-century Frankfurt remained active into the twenty-first century.
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Do you follow this artist, or have you come across a work you would like to know more about? We regularly research works appearing on the market and are always happy to exchange views on quality, provenance, art-historical context and previous auction results. You can contact us directly via info@antonello.art.
Footnotes
[1] The Frick Collection, Rosenberg & Stiebel Archive, and press release The Frick Collection Acquires Rosenberg & Stiebel Archive, 24 January 2022; history of the firm and its international activities.
[2] Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Asian Art, provenance records concerning N.V. Internationale Antiquiteitenhandel and Rosenberg & Stiebel; see also the Dutch Restitutions Committee, Rosenbaum (B) case.
[3] National Gallery of Art, Washington, Attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger, Portrait of a Young Man, inv. no. 1961.9.21; provenance: Rosenberg & Stiebel and M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1947.
[4] Cleveland Museum of Art, Frans Hals, Portrait of a Woman, probably Aeltje Dircksdr. Pater, inv. no. 1948.137; provenance: Rothschild family, Rosenberg & Stiebel, Cleveland Museum of Art.
[5] Mauritshuis, Bartholomäus Bruyn the Elder, Portrait of Jakob Omphalius, inv. no. 1225; provenance including J. & S. Goldschmidt, forced sale in 1938, restitution in 1948, and probably Rosenberg & Stiebel in 1950.
[6] The Frick Collection, Rosenberg & Stiebel Archive, archival records c. 1890–2014; donated by Gerald G. Stiebel and part of the Frick Art Reference Library since 2022.