Ferenc Chorin

Credit Line Charles H. Bayley Picture and Painting Fund and Henry H. and Zoe Oliver Sherman Fund ProvenanceBy 1918 until about 1931, Frigyes Glück (b. 1858 - d. 1931), Budapest [see note 1]. Probably about 1931, acquired by Ferenc Chorin (b. 1879 – d. 1964), Budapest; 1943, deposited by Chorin at the Hungarian Commercial Bank of Pest, Co., Budapest; January 1945, taken from Chorin’s bank vault, probably by Soviet troops, and dispersed [see note 2]. Private collection, Switzerland [see note 3]. 1982, Edward Speelman, Ltd., London; 1982, sold by Speelman to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 15, 1982); October 7, 2021, deaccessioned by the MFA for restitution to the heirs of Ferenc Chorin [see note 4]. NOTES: [1] Deposited by Glück at the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest, in 1918, and lent to the “First Exhibition of Art Works Taken into Public Ownership,” Hall of Exhibitions (Műcsarnok), Budapest, 1919. See Ludwig Baldass, "Glück Frigyes képgyűjteménye," Ars Una 1, no. 8-9 (May-June, 1924), pp. 302 (ill.), 305. The painting remained in Glück’s study at the time of his death. [2] Chorin probably acquired the painting from Glück’s estate shortly after his death. It was certainly in his possession by 1938, when he listed it on his fire and theft insurance policy. In 1943, Chorin deposited four crates of paintings, including the Ruysdael, at the Commercial Bank of Pest. In 1946, the bank reported that the contents of Chorin’s deposit had been taken in January 1945, during the Siege of Budapest. [4] Jewish industrialist and collector Ferenc Chorin and his family were persecuted by National Socialist forces, fled Hungary in 1944, and settled in New York in 1947. Despite the family’s efforts to locate the contents of the bank vault in the postwar years, they never recovered the Ruysdael. The painting was included in a 1998 publication on Hungarian war losses, but because it was published with an incorrect image and description, the MFA was not aware that the View of Beverwijk had belonged to Chorin or was considered missing. In 2021, the heirs of Ferenc Chorin located the painting on the MFA’s web site and requested its return.