Nat Leeb

Identity:

His father was a dealer in antiques and paintings.

Life:

In 1920 he was admitted to the Ecole des Arts Decoratifs in Strasbourg, exhibited at the Maison Alsacienne d'Art. ln 1923 the school awarded him its first-c1ass diploma. He was named artistic director of the Maison Knittler of Mulhouse, an international publisher of art. I 1925 he moved to Paris. He exhibited in the Weinstein Gallery in Paris and became joined the Society of Lovers of Art. From 1928-1932 Leeb lived in Berlin with his friend Georg Grosz. Because Leeb had prepared illustrations for a book by Ehrich Muhsam and was a friend of Carl von Osietzki, in 1933 he was accused of subversion and fled from Germany. He joined Klee in Berne, Switzerland in 1935. From 1940-45 he lived in Southern France. Linked with the underground captured, and crippled by the French-staffed Gestapo in Marseille. After the war he returned to Paris and continued to paint and exhibit in Europe and America.

His first collection was looted during the war but he resumed collecting after the war. He was a very knowledgeable connoisseur. Many of his works entered public collections. A biography by Lawrence Jeppson states:

'ln the course of seventy or more years Leeb owned, for varying periods, paintings, drawings, and prints by a Pantheon of artists, including Andrea deI Sarto, Henrick Avercamp, Evaristo Baschenis, Osias Beert, Emile Bernard, Jacques Blanchard, Frans Bloeman, Louis Leopold Boilly, Pierre Bonnard, Francois Boucher, Pierre van Boucle, Charles Bouillon, Jan Breughel the EIder, Adrian Brouwer, Gustave Caillebotte, Giulio Campagnol la, Don Juan Carreno de Miranda, Eugene Carriere, Mary Cassatt, Jean Singleton Copley, Jean-Baptise Camille Corot, Sanchez Cotan, Gustave Courbet, Guiseppeo-Maria Crespi, Henri-Pierre Danloux, Edgar Degas, Charles Daubigny, Jacques Louis David, Eugene Delacroix, Maurice Denis, Andre Derain, Alfred de Dreux, Jean-Baptise Deshays, Alexandre Francois Desportes, Gerrit Dou, Adam Elsheimer, James Ensor, Frans Everbroeck, Henri Fantin-Latour, Francois-Louis Francia, Jean Honore Fragonard, Eugene Fromentin, Garofalo, Paul Gauguin, Paul Gavarni, Theodore Gericault, Francesco de Goya, Jan van Goyen, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Georg Grosz, Armand Guillaumin, Juan van der Hamen, Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres, Willem Kalf, Jan van Kessel, Paul Klee, Joseph Anton Kock, Maurice Quentin de LaTour, Marie Laurencin, Nicolas de Largillierre, Max Liebermann, Jacques Linard, Claude Lorrain, Maximillien Luce, Edouard Manet, Andrea Mantegna, Albert Marquet, Gabriel Metsu, Jean-Francois Millet, Louise Moillon, Claude Monet, Piet Mondrian, Jean-Baptise Monnoyer, Bartolorne Estaban Murillo, Jean-Baptiste Oudry, Antonio Pereda, Jean-Batpiste Picart, Camille Pissarro, Nicolas Poussin, Francesco Primateccio, Puvis de Chavannes, Henry Raeburn, Antoine Ranc, Raphael, Odilon Redon, Rembrandt van Rijn, Pierre Renoir, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Jean Paul Riopelle, Hubert Robert, Guilo Romano, Salvator Rosa, Georges Rouault, Peter Paul Rubens, Carlo Saraceni, Paul Signac, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, Sebastian Stoskopff, David Teniers the Younger, Gerard Terborch, Giambattista Tiepolo, Gerard Ter Borch, J.M.W. Turmer, Suzanne Valadon, Jan van Eyck, Jacques Villon, Claude Vignon, Douglas Volk, Benjamin West, James MacNeill Whistler, Wouwennan, Marco Zoppo, Francisco de Zurbaran, and many others.'

Bibliography:

Lawrence Jeppson, 'Nat Leeb Painter and Collector (1906-1990)', http://www.natleeb.com/ecrits_lawrence.html (acc. 2014