Dr Johannes Hell was born in 1897 in Michelsdorf, near Siebenbürgen in Transylvania (modern-day Romania), then part of Austria-Hungary. Having trained as an artist and art historian, in 1932 Hell undertook conservation training at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin. Fearing for the safety of his Jewish wife following the introduction of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws in 1935, Hell fled to England with his family in 1937, continuing to work as a picture restorer post-war, including at the National Gallery, Royal Collection, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Tate.
Picture restorer Dr Johannes (Hans) Hell was born in 1897 in Michelsdorf, near Siebenbürgen in Transylvania (modern-day Romania), then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He drew and painted throughout his teenage years, studying Old Master paintings at the Brukenthal Museum in nearby Sibiu. After leaving school in 1915 in the midst of the First World War, he joined the army, was captured by the Russians and between 1916 and 1920 held in a Siberian officers' camp, from where he escaped to Japan in 1921. From there, he made his way to Berlin (via Vienna), studying at the Charlottenburg State Art School under prominent restorer Kurt Wehlte (author, in 1967, of the seminal study The Materials and Techniques of Painting). After teaching briefly at the Berlin State Art School and University, Hell studied art history at the University of Berlin, where his supervisor Adolph Goldschmidt (1863–1944) instilled in him a love of artworks in general and Rembrandt in particular (Hell's 1928 doctorate on Rembrandt's late drawings was published in 1930); he also developed a prodigious visual memory for 'the artist's handling of the drawing, tone, and color’ [sic] (J. H. Stoner and M. van der Goltz, p. 278). In 1932 Hell undertook conservation training at the Kaiser Friedrich Museum, apparently the first art historian to do so. The Department was headed by the German-Jewish conservator Helmut Ruhemann, known for his thorough approach to varnish removal and high-finish retouching, but Hell preferred Assistant Conservator Jacob von Danzas’s less intrusive approach ('better do less than more') and this attitude, combined with Goldschmidt's critical eye, informed his own practice. Following the Nazi's rise to power and Ruhemann’s dismissal and departure for England in 1933, Hell was employed as a full-time restorer under von Danzas. In December of the same year, he published an article Wehrlose Bilder [Defenceless Pictures], in which he warned against radical restoration based purely on science, in favour of aesthetic, 'invisible' retouching in order to maintain the original aura of a painting.
With the introduction of the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws in 1935, Hell was ordered either to divorce his Jewish wife Kate (née Meyer) or lose his position, and in 1937, the couple, together with their two children, fled to England. They settled in north London, an area widely settled by German-speaking émigrés and refugees, first at 8 Carlton Hill, NW8 (1938–42), and then at 3 Eldon Grove, NW3 (1948–74). In 1940, following the introduction of internment for so-called 'enemy aliens', Hell was interned for nine months in Onchan Camp, on the Isle of Man, where his fellow internees included artists Jack Bilbo and Klaus Meyer, the musicologist Hans Keller, and violinist Peter Schidloff, later co-founder of the Amadeus Quartet.
Post-war, Hell continued to work as a freelance restorer, earning an international reputation. His differences with Ruhemann resurfaced publicly in 1946–47 in a controversy over the planned cleaning of certain National Gallery paintings. Trusted by many British art historians and curators, particularly because of his interest in the preservation of the effects of age and patina, Hell carried out high-profile restoration projects for clients including the Dulwich Picture Gallery (conserving the collection after its return to South London from wartime evacuation in Wales), the Royal Collection, Tate, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Apsley House and Sir John Soane’s Museum. Between 1945 and 1950, he cleaned 13 of the tempera paintings included in the Arts Council’s 1951 William Blake exhibition. His pupils included John Brealey and Nancy Stocker (1947–51), Hubert von Sonnenburg (1958–59) and Knut Nicolaus (1963–66); the latter praised Hell’s connoisseurship, observing: ‘as a great chef can talk about food and make your mouth water, when Hell talked about art your mouth would also start watering’ (Stoner and van der Goltz, p. 281). Hell’s approach to restoration can be observed in his writings on Rembrandt including a short article on the Dutch master's painting technique in Kunstchronik (1957). While noting the importance of X-radiography, Hell cautioned that critical interpretation was also needed, observing that: 'No cleaning or restoration treatment could possibly restore the original appearance and condition of even the most perfectly preserved painting'; he discussed how colours darken and fade, oil paint shrinks, solvents used to remove varnish may penetrate the oil film, declaring that cleaning too far is an 'unalterable adulteration and can never be re-compensated' (Stoner and van der Goltz, pp. 280-281). He noted that paintings could survive art historical disputes but remain defenceless against over-zealous restoration, stressing the importance of the restorer's trained eye and judgement and concluding, 'Retouching should remain recognisable and always be easier to remove than the original, which may never be overlaid with foreign colour. An old picture must never be seen as a field for a painter to practice his art'. Hell was naturalised British in 1947; he died in London in 1974.
Consult items in the Ben Uri archive related to [Johannes Hell]
Publications related to [Johannes Hell] in the Ben Uri Library