Cyclamen

The Städtische Galerie Stuttgart purchased the painting in 1947 from the Stuttgart art shop Dr. Fritz C. Valentien. Where Valentien got the painting is unknown. There is no documentation on its provenance. Valentien was convicted in absentia as a "German agent" in Switzerland in 1943. He was one of the art shops involved in the sale of art banned as "degenerate" and maintained contacts with various incriminated art dealers in Germany and Switzerland. In Stuttgart, he cooperated with the city administration during the "Third Reich" and acted for them as an expert and exploiter of confiscated works of art, as in the case of the estate of the widow Berta Diem in 1944. There is circumstantial evidence of Valentien's involvement in the Nazi art theft and the agent activities of which he was accused by Switzerland.