Lot 53E email save

EINSTEIN. ML Signed of introduction for music teac

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Princeton: 1940. One oblong sheet, written in German (100 x 180 mm). Both letter and picture mounted to board. Framed. Condition: light fading and creasing. einstein recommends a czech professor and fellow musician. Forced to leave Prague in 1939 to escape Nazi persecution, Professor Paul Nettl came to America with his concert pianist wife from Vienna, Margaret. Professor Nettl's exit from Europe was aided by Westminster Choir College, in the vicinity of Princeton, New Jersey, where he was given a temporary position. Here the Nettl's became friends with Princeton professor and fellow émigré, Albert Einstein. In Princeton Margaret Nettl played in a string quartet with Einstein, an amateur but distinguished violinist. This letter of introduction was possibly sent to Indiana University where the Nettl's would eventually settle. Nettl's references at this time including not only Einstein but also the displaced German writer Thomas Mann. [Framed with:] SPIRO, Eugene (1874 - 1972). Lithograph portrait signed in pencil at lower right (340 x 370 mm). Eugene Spiro was a well known artist in Europe before fleeing to the United States in 1941. Spiro had asked Einstein to sit for him back in Europe, but Einstein refused, citing that he sat only for unknown artists. Several years later, in 1941, he agreed to sit for Spiro as he was now an newly arrived émigré and unknown in his new homeland.

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