Pierre Hirsch archives

Collection description

Collection

Country:: Belgium

Holding institution:: Pierre Hirsch

Holding institution (official language):: Pierre Hirsch

Postal address:: Bruxelles

Email:: pierrehirsch@scarlet.be

Reference number:: PHirsch-Brussels-Fonds Pierre Hirsch

Title:: Pierre Hirsch archives

Title (official language):: Fonds Pierre Hirsch

Creator/accumulator:: Hirsch, Pierre

Date(s):: 1869/2012

Extent:: 4 linear metres

Scope and content:: This fonds contains many original documents as well as copies. We firstly note much iconographic material such as pictures of the exterior and interior of the Magasins Hirsch in various periods, photos of shop displays, members of the Hirsch family, fashion shows, models of haute couture and fur clothing, photos of the workshops and the employees, but also drawings, patterns and plans of the buildings. The fonds also contains correspondence, logbooks of the direction of the enterprise, documents related to the Villa Johanna, re-transcriptions of interviews of the personnel taken on the occasion of the closure of the shops, notes concerning documents loaned for various exhibitions and donations to museums, many press articles, fascicules and works in which the Magasins Hirsch & Cie or the Hirsch family is mentioned. The fonds contains documents related to the five other Hirsch & Cie shops in Germany and the Netherlands as well. We also note the manuscript written by Pierre Hirsch titled Souvenirs de mes années Hirsch & Cie (1953-1963)(2005). Incidentally, we also note in this fonds various works and material directly or indirectly related to Isaac Israëls (1865-1934), the Dutch impressionist painter who started his career as fashion and haute couture painter in the Maisons Hirsch & Cie in Amsterdam (where he notably painted the female clientele).

Administrative/biographical history:: Pierre Hirsch was born in Brussels in 1931. He is one of the great-grandsons of Léo Hirsch and Johanna Freudenberg, founders of the Maison Hirsch & Cie. He is the son of Lucienne Van Praag (1902-199) and Jean-Paul Hirsch (1901-1972), the latter the youngest son of Arthur Hirsch, himself the son of Léo Hirsch and Johanna Freudenberg. As a member of this family of merchants and lawyers of Jewish and Christian descent, Pierre Hirsch was involved in the direction of the Maison Hirsch & Cie between 1953 and 1962. He held the functions of co-director and later associate manager until the voluntary liquidation of the business in 1962. Afterwards Pierre Hirsch became one of the commercial managers of SA Magec, a branch of the English group Imperial Continental Gas Association. Later he changed his career to become an accomplished international consultant in matters of company equipment for many large, small and medium enterprises in Europe and South America. As a result of his lineage linked with the Hirsch family and his participation in the direction of the Maison Hirsch & Cie, Pierre Hirsch has kept, collected and inventoried many documents concerning the history of the business and his family. (V. Pouillard, "Hirsch Lévi dit Léo ; Hirsch Arthur, Hirsch Ivan Isidore, Hirsch Lucien, Hirsch Robert, Hirsch Jean-Paul", in J.-P. Schreiber, Dictionnaire biographique des Juifs de Belgique. Figures du judaïsme belge, XIXe-XXe siècles, Bruxelles, de Boeck, 2002, pp. 162-165.)

Access points: locations:: Amsterdam; Brussels; Germany; Netherlands

Access points: persons/families:: Hirsch family; Hirsch, Pierre; Israëls, Isaac

Subject terms:: Architectural drawings; Art; Art--Artists; Clothing; Correspondence; Paintings; Photographs; Trade and commerce; Trade and commerce--Clothing and textile trade

Access, restrictions:: Consultation and reproduction requires the authorisation of Pierre Hirsch.

Finding aids:: Fonds Pierre Hirsch, Répertoire analytique des archives de la Maison Hirsch & Cie (1869-1962), 6e éd., June 2013, 12 p.

Yerusha Network member:: State Archives of Belgium

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