Violinist Andreas Weissgerber 1929
Max Slevogt
* 1868 in Landshut † 1932 in Landsweiler
Etching. Size of sheet: 56 x 41.5 cm.
Artist's proof impression. Signed.
Provenance: Ismar Littmann (1878 - 1934) (acquired directly from the artist).
Literature: Not in Sönh.
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Andreas Weissgerber (1900 Volos -1941 Tel Aviv) was an Austro-Hungarian violinist. Weissgerber's family, which was Jewish, had its roots in Sadagura near Czernowitz in the Bukovina, at the outer extremity of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire. Shortly before Andreas was born, his family settled in Volos, Greece and then they moved to Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey). As a prodigy, he performed throughout the Ottoman Empire starting at the age of 7, once playing in Constantinople for Sultan Abdul Hamid II, who rewarded him with four parrots. He studied in Budapest with Jenö Hubay - also the teacher of Szigeti, Telmanyi, Zathurecky, Martzy and many other eminent violinists - then in Berlin with the Odessa-born Issay Barmas. In the 1920s, her took up numerous concert tours through Germany with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny at the piano. Visual artists of the Secession movement such as Lovis Corinth, Max Liebermann and Max Slevogt portrayed him.
After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Weissgerber could only perform for the Jewish Cultural Association. In 1936 he emigrated to Palestine, where he finally became concertmaster of the Palestine Orchestra, later the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.