EINSTEIN, Albert (1879-1955). Photograph signed and inscribed on the outer mat ("Dir lieben Estella Albert Einstein 1940").

Silver gelatin print, 250 x 202mm (mild silvering and trimmed at margins). Affixed to a photographer's mat (With pencil signature "Hirsch N.Y." at left, and folder (390 x 290mm). (Light toning and crease at top margin).

A photograph signed and inscribed to his lover, Estella Katzenellenbogen. Best known as a major collector of East Asian art as well as German and French Impressionism and Expressionism, Katzenellenbogen began a liaison with Albert Einstein in 1926. The pair were often seen attending concerts together, and she was known to have visited Einstein at his summer house in Caputh. Additionally, she accompanied Einstein on his first visit to the United States in 1931. Although baptized as a Protestant, her Jewish ancestry compelled her to flee Germany, first to Switzerland in 1936 and then to the United States in 1939. She settled in Los Angeles where she ran a branch of the Nierendorf Gallery for a brief time in the mid-1940s, primarily dealing in works by Paul Klee. As this piece attests, although their affair had cooled off since the 1920s, Einstein remained in contact with her following her emigration to the United States. Provenance: Estella Katzenellenbogen (inscription) – Konrad Kellen — by descent to the consignors.