Sometimes Nice Things Do Happen!

For some years I have been reading aktuell . Although I left Berlin in the spring of 1933 when I was nineteen, I still love to hear about it – the beautiful art in the museums, the lovely music, the parks and the interesting build- ings old and new. And one day I came across a notice in aktuell by Magreet Nouwen, Director of the Liebermann Archiv, asking “Who owns pictures or letters of Max Liebermann?”
Max Liebermann was a much loved German-Jewish painter and the head of the Prussian Academy of Arts at the beginning of the 20th century. I had two paintings which my parents-in-law had given us as a wedding gift, and so I asked my daughter Ann so take some photographs of them which we sent to Mrs. Nouwen. A happy and lively correspondence began which I enjoyed ever so much. She told me that she grew up in Holland but had lived in Berlin for a long time.
I was sorry that I had not heard from Mrs. Nouwen for a quite while, but in August I got a lovely postcard from her, Adolf Menzel“s “Das Balkonzimmer” (Room with a Balcony), 1845 “ “one of my favourite pictures in the Nationalgalerie,” she wrote.
Mrs. Nouwen wrote: “I have a very bad conscience because I have not thanked you for all the beautiful things you sent me. I was so busy with Liebermann that my correspondence remained unanswered. Now my husband has decided that we need a vacation. I want to let you know before we leave that I have not forgotten you.” When I show this postcard to Ann, she exclaimed, “That picture is hanging in my living room right now!”
This is what happened. When Ann was in London in 2001, she went to an exhibit at the National Gallery which she liked very much, “Spirit of an Age: 19th Century Paintings from the Nationalgalerie, Berlin.” She decided to buy a copy of their poster, the delightful picture by Adolf Menzel, “Das Balkonzimmer.” It is now hanging in my den “ a present from Ann “ and gives me great pleasure. As I said of the beginning of this story: Sometimes nice things do happen!

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Eleanor Alexander
Chiffre 106203