People around Philippe Smit

Leonardus Albertus Hubscher, Berendina’s younger brother by four years, was born in 1882 in Almelo, Holland. His second marriage was to Emily Ramp, mother of Virginia Wenderhold.

It was most probably at the beginning of the 1930s that he met Theodore Pitcairn and very soon became the manager of his castle Pleignes¹, in Seine-et-Marne.

During the exodus of 1940, he organized Smit’s move to Pau, together with Berendina, Lotty and all of the artist’s works. Hubscher and his family stayed with Smit there until 1943.

His assistant was Fritz Wenderhold², son of Jacobus Wenderhold, a close relationship of Berendina.

After the sale of Pleignes in the late 1940s, Theodore Pitcairn took him to the United States, where he became Pitcairn’s secretary and principal collaborator.

From 1949 to 1954 Hubscher became closely involved in a project to publish a book devoted to Smit’s work, a project which was never completed.³ In particular, Hubscher was responsible for the coordination and translation of contributions from different authors thanks to his fluency in three languages (Dutch, English and French).

In 1961, he died in the United States where his daughter Gloria⁴ inherited his role as Pitcairn’s assistant.

1. See Chronology 1940-1948, fig. 1 and biographical note on Marijke Pitcairn.
2. Husband of Virginia, Leo Hubscher's stepdaughter, who died prematurely of poliomyelitis (see also Chronology 1929-1939, photo 'On the perron at Thoury Ferrottes'). Fritz remarried to Denise (see Provenance [PS 49], [PS 146] and [PS 367]), a close friend of Gloria, Leo and Emily's daughter.
3. See Niehaus 1955.
4. See [PS 457].