Source Description
Anita Rée’s
1925 painting “White Trees in Positano” can be
considered the most important work from her years in Italy. In the early
1920s the Hamburg
painter had spent several years in the Italian village of
Positano.
During her time there she studied the architecture of this mountain village, its
landscape and inhabitants, whom she captured in individual portraits or folk
life scenes. Fascinated by quattrocento painting and especially Piero della Francesca’s
frescoes in Arezzo, she eventually developed a style that was very much in
the vein of New Objectivity. “White Trees in Positano” depicts a
road turning into a bridge and, in a narrow curve, winding its way up a slope
and in between several buildings. The scene is framed by walls. While this work
is considered a highlight among Rées
Positano vistas
today, it was controversial at the time. The history of this painting, which was
long considered lost, hints at Anita Rée’s own fate. Although she never identified as Jewish,
she fell victim to National Socialist persecution. Today the painting is housed
at the Hamburger
Kunsthalle.
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Recommended Citation
Anita Rée, “Weiße Bäume in Positano” [White Trees in Positano], 1925, edited in: Key Documents of German-Jewish History,
<https://dx.doi.org/10.23691/jgo:source-156.en.v1> [October 11, 2024].