The previous owner of this work, the Charlottenburg industrialist, magistrate and politician, Max Cassirer, was forced to flee Germany with his wife, Hedwig, and their children in the winter of 1938-39. Max left behind both his illustrious career (he had studied medicine in Breslau and Berlin, but first made his fortune in the timber trade) and his wonderful villa on the Kaiserallee, today the Bundesallee, in Berlin.... After their departure from Berlin, the Cassirers' villa was eventually emptied in 1942 and given over to the Japanese embassy. Max's art collection was sold between 1942 and 1943 in a series of forced sales, although the present work was confiscated by the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg on behalf of the Reich before it could proceed to auction. (http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2009/19th-century-european-paintings-including-german-austrian-central-european-paintings-the-orientalist-sale-spanish-painting-and-the-scandinavian-sale-l09661/lot.22.html)