SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Felix Nussbaum

Born into a Jewish family in Osnabrück in 1904, Felix Nussbaum studied painting and graphic art in Hamburg and Berlin. A residency at the Villa Massimo took him to Rome in 1932. He settled in Belgium with the painter Felka Platek in 1935. Interned at Saint-Cyprien in 1940, he escaped and returned to Brussels, where he subsequently lived in hiding. Arrested with his wife, he was deported to Auschwitz in 1944 and murdered there.

His paintings translate experiences of exile, confinement and persecution into deeply unsettling images. Self-Portrait with Jewish Identity Card, painted in 1943, and Triumph of Death, completed in 1944, are landmarks of this work. Designed by Daniel Libeskind and opened in 1998, the Felix Nussbaum House in Osnabrück preserves a major collection of his paintings.

This profile brings together identity references for Felix Nussbaum and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

Documented auction references

1auction reference

1auction house

1documented result with a price

Lempertz

References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.

Works recorded at auction

Photograph : Lempertz · Enlarge image ↗

Lempertz · Lot 490

Schloss in Rapallo

Gouache

Original catalogue wording

Schloss in Rapallo
gouache

Auction date : 2018-06-01

Published result : 22320 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 6000

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Sources and references

Reference record
LoC · Public domain (id.loc.gov authority metadata; link only)
Documentary source
Documentary source
Documentary source

SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
Profile updated : 2026-10-21