Donor. John Mathieson Mathias (1906-1963)
John M Mathias donated four paintings to Glasgow in December 19511. Two are by French artist Andre Lhote (Figures 1 and 2) and two are by English artist Mark Gertler(Figures 3 and 4)
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/head-of-a-woman-84963
Figure 1 .Head of a Woman by Andre Lhote c1925 ©CSGCIC Glasgow Museums . Acc 2930
https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/nude-84964
Figure 2 Nude by Andre Lhote c1925 © CSGCIC Glasgow Museums. Acc 2931
The Paintings
Figures 1 and 2 are the work of Andre Lhote (1885-1962). He was born in Bordeaux and trained first as a decorative wood carver before attending L’Ecole des Beaux- Arts in Bordeaux where he took up painting. He moved to Paris in 1906 where his works were shown for example at the Salon d’Automne. Lhote originally painted colourful landscapes in the Fauvist style but his mature works were in the Cubist style. Over the next few years Lhote’s works were shown all over Europe including in London in 1912 at the Second Post Expressionist exhibition at the Grafton Galleries which was organised by Roger Fry and the Bloomsbury Group. He set up his own art school- Academie Montparnasse in Paris in 1922. His most significant work however was not as a visual artist but as a writer who articulated Cubist theories and as an educator who influenced a generation of French artists.2
We do not know at this point for certain how or when these paintings were acquired by John Mathias or the Mathias family. We do know that in November 1927 Andre Lhote held an exhibition of his own and his students work at the Claridge Gallery at 52 Brook Street in London 3 which was partly owned by our donor’s mother Ena Mathias . In the 1927 exhibition catalogue (Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings by Andre Lhote and His Pupils) there is one work entitled Negresse which is the title given to one of two Andre Lhote paintings which appear in the 1951 Catalogue of French Paintings published by Glasgow Museums. The description and measurements correspond to Figure 1 Head of a Woman” above. The original title was obviously changed at some point as it would not now be acceptable .There are three works entitled Nu in the 1927 exhibition catalogue any one of which could be our Nude ( Figure 2) in the 1951 catalogue though there is no description or any measurements to support this .4 It is possible that both paintings were bought by someone in the Mathias family from this exhibition.
During the period of the exhibition Andre Lhote gave a lecture at the home of Mrs Emile Mond whose home was a centre of art and culture at the time. She was said to be a talented artist and musician .5 Emile Mond was a cousin of Robert Moritz Mathias, our donor’s father(See Appendix ) .
Figures 3 and 4 are the work of English artist Mark Gertler(1891-1939) ) who was born in Spitalfields of Polish -Jewish descent. 6 He attended the Slade School of Art from 1908-1912 where he won several prizes. His health was not good and he spent a lot of time in the South of France where he was influenced by Post -Impressionism. His style was highly individual with strong elements of Eastern folk art. He specialised in still lives, female portraits and nudes. He had a studio in Hampstead and frequently exhibited in various London Art Galleries such as the Leicester Galleries. He was very successful until the nineteen thirties when his popularity began to wane. He suffered bouts of depression and after an unsuccessful exhibition at the Lefevre Gallery in London in 1939 he committed suicide .7 We can only speculate at this point as to how these two paintings came into the possession of John Mathias or the Mathias family or why they were given to Glasgow. We know that one of Gertler’s patrons was Lady Ottoline Morrell, half -sister of the Duke of Portland. She was also a close friend of Ena Mathias. Another link between Gertler and the Mathias family is that Ena’s brother Robert bought one of Gertler’s paintings .8 Ottiline suggested that Gertler might exhibit at her friend Ena’s Claridge Gallery at a time when his finances were low but Gertler refused saying the Claridge was not prestigious enough and Ena could not offer him an advance payment. However in November 1926 Robert Mathias did buy one of Gertler’s paintings -possibly Pomegranates and Melon for £50 which according to
Gertler was ,’a Godsend’. 9 According to The Times Gertler did exhibit at the Claridge Gallery at the end of 1926.10 Clytie and Autumn Leaves was exhibited at the Leicester Galleries in 1932.11 A work called After Giotto was exhibited in the Lefevre Gallery in London in May 1939 shortly before Gertler’s death . 12 These may have been our paintings but we still do not know how they came into the hands of the Mathias family.
Figure 3 Clytie and Autumn Leaves by Mark Gertler c 1932 © CSGCIC Glasgow Museums .Acc 2929
Figure 4 After Giotto(also known as Pieta) by Mark Gertler is a study of a detail from Giotto’s Lamentation (The Mourning of Christ) c 1911-1939 © CSGCIC Glasgow Museums Acc 2928
The Mathias/Wertheimer Family
Our donor’s father was Robert Moritz Mathias (1873-1961) and his mother was Helena(known as Ena) Wertheimer(1874-1936).
Robert M Mathias was a watercolourist as well as a collector of art . He was born in Cologne ,Germany in 1874 and he came to Britain partly because of religious persecution against Jewish people at that time and also to work for his uncle Ludwig Mond(See Appendix )). He became a naturalised British citizen in 1910. The naturalisation papers were signed by Winston Churchill who was then one of the Principal Secretaries of State.13 His father was Mathieson Mathias (1823-1883) and his mother was Mathilde Mond (1845-1928).14 At the time of our donor’s birth in 1906 Robert Mathias was the managing director of the Mond Nickel Company .15 He does not appear on the UK Census of 1891 or 1901 but was in the UK by 1905 when he married Ena Wertheimer .16
Ena Wertheimer was one of the daughters of successful London art dealer Asher Wertheimer (1844-1918) who had a gallery at 154 New Bond Street ,London which had been established by his father Samson Wertheimer, who was born in Germany but fled to Britain in the 1830s as a result of the antisemitic persecution of that time. A Family Romance by Jean Strouse gives a detailed account of Samson and Asher Wertheimer’s very successful dealing in the British art world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when they bought from and sold to prominent families in London society including the Rothschilds as well as British aristocracy and became part of London Society of the early twentieth century .17 The Wertheimers moved to 8 Connaught Place near Hyde Park, London in 1884 . Connaught Place housed a mixture of titled aristocrats and wealthy Jewish families. Lord and Lady Randolf Churchill lived at 2 Connaught Place .18
Asher Wertheimer was a friend of the artist John Singer Sargeant and commissioned him to paint twelve portraits of his family over a period of ten years including portraits of Ena and her sister(Figure 5). Nine of the twelve paintings were bequeathed to the nation in 1918 after the death of Asher Wertheimer and were displayed in their own room in the National Gallery between 1923 and 1926. Many of these portraits are now in The Tate Gallery in London. When Asher Wertheimer died in 1918 his obituary in The Times described his involvement in the highest echelons of the world of art dealing and the respect in which he was held by the art world during his life Asher Wertheimer left £1.5 million in his will which was an enormous fortune at that time .19
Fig 5. Ena and Betty Werthiemer. John Singer Sargeant 1901 © Public Domain
Ena had attended the Slade School of Art between 1902 and 1905 to study painting. ()Ena was said to be ,’an accomplished painter’ 20 who seems to have been something of a force of nature . She carried on the Wertheimer family’s presence in the art trade by opening the Claridge Gallery at 52 Brook Street London. This was not her fIrst commercial venture. 1923 Ena had opened a dress shop for girls and debutantes which specialised in French dresses which she obtained from Paris. The shop was called Poulain (foal) and was in George Street in London’s West End. Russian emigrees and a manageress ran the shop which soon moved to larger premisses at 52 Brook Street. However an examination of the accounts showed that the business was deeply in the red partly because the manageress had been helping herself to cash. Ena’s husband Robert commented that,
‘she might as well have given each dress away with a £10 note pinned to it.’
The Mathias marriage was said to be tempestuous with the couple agreeing on nothing. ‘Ena was as extravagant ,strong-willed and impulsive as her husband was cautious and restrained’. Ena loved to entertain and gave lavish dinners, teas and musical entertainments with the help of a large household staff .21 Her activities were frequently reported in the press as in 1912 when the Westminster Gazette reported her taking part in a pageant at the Allbert Hall to raise money for the University College Hospital ,London. The pageant consisted of the performance of a series of fairy stories in which Ena took part in the production of Aladdin .The pageant was attended by the Prince of Wales and other members of the Royal Family .22 Her friends included prominent artists, poets and authors such as Somerset Maugham and the Sitwells . Celebrities from the world of ballet such as Diaghilev and from the art world such as Picasso had dinner in Montague Square. While he lived Ena had a close relationship with John Singer Sargeant and they wrote to one another frequently. It was even suspected by Robert that they had an affair .23
After the demise of Poulain 52 Brook Street was reconfigured as the Claridge Gallery which was said to appeal more to Ena’s cultural and artistic interests. The Claridge Gallery was opened in July 1925 with an exhibition of the work of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)who had recently died. The proceeds of the sale of the exhibition catalogue were to go to the National Art Collections Fund .24
The Gallery did not follow the Wertheimer tradition of exhibiting and dealing in Old Masters, portraits and the art of the French ancient regime. Ena exhibited twentieth- century art giving young artists an opportunity to show their works without having to pay the exorbitant fees and commissions charged by other west-end galleries. She exhibited established artists as well including Lhote, Mark Gertler, Raoul Dufy, Harold Squire and many others .25
Also part owner of the gallery was Walter Archibald Propert who as well as being a surgeon was a devotee of ballet and art. He wrote a book on Russian ballet and many of the exhibitions at the Claridge Gallery concerned Russian art and Russian ballet. He had served as a surgeon in Russia during WW1 so perhaps his interest in Russia stemmed from then. He had been a friend of the Mathias family for at least twenty years and was one of the referees who supported John Mathison Mathias’s application to become a student at The Inner Temple in 1927(see below).26
After several apparently successful years where visitors included Queen Mary in June 193027 the Claridge Gallery closed on December 18 1931. There appear to be two reasons for the closure. The Daily Mirror in December 1931 reported that the closure of the gallery would be regretted by many people even though few bought paintings .28 It is said Ena bought many works that failed to sell .29 The Daily Sketch reported that a recent exhibition of the work of a popular young artist had attracted 1800 people only six of whom bought paintings. The Daily Sketch however also reported that the lease of the property was up .30
The Mathias family lived at 15 Montague Square, Marylebone,London at the time of our donors birth 31 and in the late nineteen twenties also bought Bury Manor, a country house in the village of Bury in West Sussex .This was a house of fourteen bedrooms ,six bathrooms and several reception rooms.32 As we have seen the Mathias family, though Jewish were not overtly so and were greatly involved in London society many of whom were frequent guests at Bury Manor. The Mathias family was also involved in the community around Bury Manor and Ena especially was involved in many fundraising charity events, those involving the creative arts being her greatest interest .33
John Mathieson Mathias
John Mathieson Mathias was born on 4 September 1906.34 He had four siblings:-
Diana Henrietta born 1908
Anthony Robert born 1910
Elizabeth Flora born 1912
David Frederick Archibald born 191335
As we have seen at the time of his birth the family was living 15, Montague Square ,Marylebone ,London. The 1911 Census tells us that at that time of the census John ,Diana and Anthony were staying at the home of his father’s cousin ,Robert Mond, eldest son of Ludwig Mond the chemist ,at Combe Bank, Sundridge in Kent. Also in the house were Robert Mond’s two daughters, Freda age 11 and Irena age 10 . Neither set of parents were in the house and it appears that all the children were being looked after by the governess ,Amy Allen and a house full of servants .36 There is no trace of either set of parents in the 1911 Census so perhaps they were abroad on holiday . Robert and Ena Mathias often travelled abroad to the Continent ,North Africa and the Middle East leaving the children with nannies and governesses .37
There is little information regarding our donor’s childhood. In a letter to his mother John Singer Sargent referred to him as ,
“the Greek God so shy and struggling although possessed of magnificent aplomb” which appears to be something of a contradiction. 38
John attended a school in Horsham ,West Sussex but we do not know which one .39 The 1921 Census sees the family still living in Montague Square together with a butler, cook and housemaid. John was fourteen at the time of this census and described as a full-time student .40 He appears to have matriculated in October 1925 when he would have been 17 years old.
John was admitted to Trinity College Cambridge on 1 October 1925 to study for a BA in History as a ‘pensioner’ which was the name given to regular fee-paying students. He was assigned historian Denys Arthur Winstanley as a tutor. For his first two years he lived at 11 Portland Stree,Cambridge ,moving to Bishops Hostel where he remained until the end of his third year at Easter 1928. His name does not appear in the residency lists after this point. 41
The University Records show that in 1928 he was granted leave to proceed to study for an LLB but appears to have failed the Principal Examination in Law at the end of that year. However in 1929 he sat the Principal Examination in French and achieved a second -class grade finally gaining his BA in 1930. During his time at Trinity JMM appears to have been a member of the Magpie and Stump-a Trinity College debating Society and a member of the Boat Club .42
John’s career studying for his LLB was rather mixed. He was admitted to the Inner Temple on 22 September 1927 to study for the Bar while still attending Trinity College. Between 1928 and 1931 he failed several exams at the first sitting but eventually passed his Final Exams in the Hilary Term of 1931. He was called to the Bar at the inner Temple on 17 November 1931.43 He is listed as a member of the Inner Temple in the 1932 Law List which is an annual record of solicitors and barristers .44 His professional chambers were in the Goldsmith Building of the Inner Temple from 1932 while he lived at various address in the West End of London .45 Unfortunately we have no information about JMMs career as a barrister.
The Mathias country home Bury Manor had been owned by the Mathias family since at least 1928 .46 As already stated the family involved themselves in the local community for example opening the gardens of Bury Manor each year to raise money for local causes and ran an annual bazaar to raise money for the Bury and District Nursing Association .47 Ena Mathias was very hospitable and generous. According to the West Sussex Gazette ,’ she had in its highest and best sense the artistic temperament -an acute and sensitive love of beauty unmixed with any trace of pose or affectation’ .48 and The Times reported that ,
‘at her charming house in London and at her lovely little manor house under the Sussex Downs it was her delight to entertain her friends .’49
John Mathias’s mother, Ena died in a London nursing home on 24 March 1936 of stomach cancer. According to the local press she was much missed by the people of Bury most of whom attended a memorial service for her in the local church to which she had donated two brass candlesticks .50
On 9 November 1937 John married Ludmilla Krassin who was the daughter of the late Leonid Krassin ,Russian Ambassador to the United Kingdom before his death in 1926. Leonid Krassin was a prominent Bolshevik .The marriage took place in the Chelsea Registry Office. 51 It is not known how John and Ludmilla met.
Before being Soviet Ambassador in London Leonid Krassin had been Soviet Ambassador in Paris where he lived with his wife and three daughters. In 1925 he was appointed to the post in London but died in 1926 leaving a vast fortune according to rumours of the time but which turned out to be a myth. 52 There were numerous reports in newspapers about Ludmilla Krassin’s romantic entanglements . One that she had secretly married M Gaston Bergery, a lawyer who had been secretary to a former Prime Minister of France . The marriage was reported to have taken place in the Soviet Embassy in Paris in August 1927 but was later denied by M. Bergery who said they were merely engaged. The second rumour going around in 1927 was that Ludmilla was to marry the French Duc de la Rochefoucaud . The newspapers emphasised Ludmilla’s beauty and wealth .53 However neither’ romance ended in marriage as Ludmilla was described as a spinster on the certificate of her marriage to John Mathias. Perhaps finding out that Ludmilla had not inherited a fortune affected her previous romances.
In 1938 John and Ludmilla were living at 27 Donne Place in the Borough of Kensington and Chelsea,London. They later moved to 3 Sterling Street in Kensington which remained their London home until around 1958 /1959 when they moved to a flat at 23 Rutland Gate, London SW 7.54
At the time of the 1939 Register John and Ludmilla together with father Robert and sister Elizabeth were living at Bury Manor while still retaining town houses in London. The sister of Robert Mathias , Theresa Said -Ruete was also there. Also listed was Dorothy Braddell whose husband was the son of Sir Thomas Braddell ,Chief Justiciary to the Federal Malay States. Dorothy was there with her daughter Virginia who was in her twenties.
There were twenty three people listed as living at Bury Manor , five of whom were servants .55 Those who were not either family friends or relatives may have been evacuees. 2 September 1939 saw the beginning of Operation Pied Piper ,the name given to the British Government plan to evacuate mothers with babies as well as school age children from the threat of bombing in London at the outbreak of war. West Sussex saw the arrival of thousands of evacuees to the Petworth area which was near Bury Manor. 56 Listed in the 1939 Register as living at Bury Manor were Rosina Linton with her daughter Doreen who was only a few months old and Irene Linton with her son Anthony who was about a year old .57 They had all previously lived in London. The 1939 Register was taken at the end of September 1939 giving time for evacuees to be listed .58
We have little information regarding life at Bury Manor during World War 2 apart from Robert Mathias being fined £1 for not immobilising his car according to wartime legislation. 59 Robert remarried in December 1942. His bride was Mary Branch who had lived at White Webbs Cottage in Bury .60 Another wedding in the family was that of Elizabeth Mathias, John’s sister, to Captain Robert Guillaumet of the Fighting French. 61
Whether John and Ludmilla spent the war living at Bury Manor or lived in London is not known at this point. They did not have any children. John Mathias does not seem to appear in any military records of the period. The 1939 Register tells us that Ludmilla was involved with ‘W.S Red Cross’ which may be an abbreviation of West Sussex Red Cross. However the inhabitants of Bury Manor played a part in fund- raising for various causes during the war. One example is a Garden Fete held to raise funds for the Bury and Amberley District Nursing Association in which the new Mrs Mathias participated .62 She also organised a whist drive and dance in the tithe barn of Bury Manor in 1944 in aid of The Agricultural Fund of the Prisoners of War Fund .63
On 9 August 1952 Ludmilla and John set sail from London for Vigo on the south west coast of Spain presumably for a holiday. They travelled First Class on the Highland Monarch 64 which was a combined cargo and passenger ship of the Royal Mail Line which had been built in 1928 by Harland and Wolff for the Nelson Line and transferred to the Royal Mail Line in 1932. 65 The Highland Monarch covered the South American route calling at Vigo ,Lisbon, Las Palmas ,Rio de Janeiro, Santos, Monte Video and Buenos Aires .66
The Mathias family appear to have continued their interest in art as in July 1960 John Mathias was one of the sponsors of a posthumous exhibition of the works of local artist Harold Squire of Henfield in West Sussex . Robert Mathias owned two of Squire’s works which he loaned to the exhibition which was held in aid of the Chilean earthquake relief fund. Harold Squire was born in Chile. 67
Robert Mathias died in London on 25 January 1961 aged eighty-nine leaving over £184,000 in his will .68 John Mathiesson Mathias died at Bury Manor on April 18 1963 aged only fifty-seven. He left over £230,000 in his will .69 He also bequeathed a painting to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The work was Mongol Archer on Horseback described as an ink on paper painting by an unknown artist from the Ming Dynasty(c 1368-1644) and is in the East Asian Collection .It had been exhibited at Sotherby’s Gallery in January 1940 which may have been when it was bought by a member of the Mathias family.70
Figure 6. Mongol Archer on Horseback c15th-16th century artist unknown © V&A
After the death of John Mathias Bury Manor was put up for auction 71 and became Dorset House Preparatory School which it remains to this day .72 The former tithe barn which saw fundraising events during WW2 is now a popular wedding venue .73
Appendix
The Mond Family
Mathilde Mond ,our donor’s grandmother, was the sister of the chemist Ludwig Mond (1839-1909) who was responsible for setting up the Brunner Mond Company in 1873 to produce soda ash. Brunner Mond eventually became part of Imperial Chemical Industries in 1926. Ludwig was also a collector of Italian art .He set up the Mond Nickel Company in 1900 which was licensed to mine nickel in Canada which was then sent to Britain to be purified by the carbonite process patented by Ludwig Mond. Robert Mathias ,our donors father ,was a director of the Mond Nickel Company. Alfred M Mond was a son of Ludwig Mond who was involved in the various family businesses, became a Liberal MP in 1906 and was elevated to the House of Lords as first Baron Melchett of Landford in 1928.74(1869-1936)( Oxford Dictionary of National Biography).
References
1. Minutes of the Corporation of Glasgow November 1951-May 1952 p.1351
2. www.britannica.com/biography/AndreLhote
3. Westminster Gazette 04/11/1927 p8
4. Glasgow Art Gallery. Catalogue of French Paintings. Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums, 1953
5. op cit ref 3
6. Sunday Times 2/11/1965
7. Time and Tide 01/07/1939 pp21-22
8. Strouse, Jean Family Romance; John Singer Sargent and the Wertheimers
Farrar Strous and Giroux 2024 .p196
9. McDougall, Sarah Mark Gertler. John Murray 2002. p245
10. Strouse p 198
11. Time and Tide 15/10/1932 p1114
12. The Times 13/05/1939 p12
13. www.ancestry.co.uk Statutory Births . John Mathieson Mathias
14. www.ancestry.co.uk Geanet Community Trees
15. op cit ref 13
16. Strouse pp146-9
17. Strouse. Chapter 4
18. as above p 72
19. The Times 12/08/1918
20 .South of England Advertiser 2/04/1936
21. Strouse p p 198-201
22. Westminster Gazette 05/12/1912 p6
23. Strouse pp201-2
24. Strouse. p 191
25. as above
26. Strouse p194-5
27. Scotsman 13/06/1930 p8
28. Daily Mirror 7/12/1931 p11
29. Strouse p.198
30. Daily Sketch 18/12/1931
31. op.cit ref 13
32. West Sussex County Times 20/09/1963 p21
33. op cit ref 20
34. op.cit ref 13
35 .www.ancestry.co.uk Statutory Births
36. UK Census 1911
37. Strouse p 201
38. Strouse p.150
39. archives@trin.cam.ac.uk
40. UK Census 1921
41. op cit ref 39
42. as above
43. cpilkington@innertemple.org.uk
44. Law List 1932
45. www.ancestry.co.uk UK Census and Electoral Rolls
46. Worthington Gazette 05/09/1928
47. West Sussex Gazette 31/10/1935 p4
48. West Sussex Gazette 02/04/1936 p3
49. The Times 27/03/1936
50. op cit ref 48
51. Daily News 10/11/1937 p11
52. Daily Express 22/08/1927 p2
53. Daily News 20/08/1927 p7. Illustrated Police News 18/08/1927 p2
54. www.ancestry.co.uk Electoral Registers 1938-1963
55. 1939 Register
56. iwm.org.uk/history/second-world-war/the-evacuation-of-children
57. op cit ref 55
58. www,nationalarchives.gov.uk
59. Littlehampton Gazette 19/09/1941 p3
60. West Sussex Gazette 17/12/1942 p2
61. as above 11/03/1943
62. as above 29/07/1943
63. as above 06/01/1944
64. www.ancestry.co.uk Passenger Lists
65. http://www.mastermariners.org.au/stories-from-the-past/6218-mv-highland-monarch-1928
66. op cit ref 64
67. West Country Times 07/04/1960 p19
68. www.ancestry.co.uk Index of Wills and Administrations 1858-1985
69 as above
70 https://collections.vam.ac.uk
71. West Sussex County Times 20/09/1963 p21
72. The Observer 15/05/1964 p6
73. https://burymanorbarn.co.uk
74. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Glasgow Museums Art Donors Group 