Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Hans Burkhardt
Girl with Cat oil painting by Hans Burkhardt

1935

$12,900
£9,795.28
€11,201.63
CA$18,023.17
A$20,045.70
CHF 10,467.24
MX$243,934.85
NOK 133,682.65
SEK 125,370.74
DKK 83,602.05
Shipping
Retrieving quote...
The 1stDibs Promise:
Authenticity Guarantee,
Money-Back Guarantee,
24-Hour Cancellation

About the Item

Girl with Cat (1935) Oil on canvas 38" x 26" 42 ½" x 30 ½" x 3 ½" framed Signed and dated "1935 H Burkhardt" lower right. Signed, dated and inscribed verso. About this artist: Hans Burkhardt was born December 20th, 1904 in Basel Switzerland. His artwork has gone through several important changes from early pastel nudes to Arshille Gorky's influence and finally to his collage style skull paintings of the 1980s. Burkhardt truly carries Modernism to a new level of profound psychological character through the means of fragmentation and amazing depth of composition. However, to understand the reach that Burkhardt's work has had on Post-Modern art, we must examine the artist's varied and experimental career. Hans' early childhood was spent in an orphanage, apprenticing with a gardener for which he was never paid. In 1924, Hans wrote to his father who had moved to the U.S. and begged for his help. Six months afterward, he also immigrated to America and found work in the furniture factory where his father was employed. During his first year there he attended night classes at Copper Union, winning first prize ($20 gold coin) for period decoration. The following year, 1927, Burkhardt enrolled full time at Grand Central School of Art at 42nd Street. This was a pivotal point in Burkhardt's early work because it was here that he met his life-long friend and mentor Arshille Gorky. Burkhardt was in Gorky's life drawing class and learned about Cubism, Cezanne, Miro and "how to put paint on". He also attended private classes on Saturdays at Gorky's studio. Burkhardt's early pastels and chalk drawings showed his struggle with abstract motion and self generated line through their intuitive conception. He did no preliminary sketches for these types of work and just went straight for the end result. It has been said that these pieces are a synthesis of Matisse's gestural line and Picasso's conceptual organic construction. The female nudes usually appear in groups of three as if muses in a progression of style, rough to complex. They are rendered not as how they were seen but as they would be touched and felt. The line both describes the form as it breaks away from the body in schematized color and bold backgrounds. Burkhardt's work resembled Gorky's style in its fluid, vertical movement from abstract to figurative and through it's sensuous, gestural color application. However, it becomes much more densely composed with intense and empathetic color. There is a clear difference between the draftsman-like work of 1934 and the much more Modern, experimental work in 1938. In 1939, Burkhardt held his first one-man show at the Stendhal Gallery in Los Angeles, set up by the artist Lorser Feitelson. After his move out West, Burkhardt never returned permanently to New York and would no longer be recognized by the East Coast. Throughout the '50s and '60s, Burkhardt lived in virtual isolation from the prominent art world of New York and Europe. At this point his work became more reflective of current political strife, in particular the Spanish Civil War. In 1944 Burkhardt showed "War - Agony of Death" at the Circle Gallery, where it was attacked by a woman with a cane. His original interest in war and death was reinvented into the theme of tragic isolation in life. The final realization of his ideas emerged in his skull paintings, begun in the 1960s. A new aesthetic of beauty arose though the surface drama of skulls in his collage work used to literalize the power of gesture. The morbidity of the relief work reveals density with physiognomic power. Surprised by Gorky's death in 1948, Burkhardt paints three versions of "The Burial of Gorky" in the following two years, which are then shown at the Metropolitan Museum in New York City. He later exhibited "The Studio of Gorky" at the Whitney Museum of American Art (NYC) and received strong critical acclaim. However, he rejected several offers of representation from galleries in New York, preferring to exhibit on his own. Burkhardt remained quite active as he took on a full time position teaching at the University of Southern California in 1959, three years after a 10 year retrospective at the Pasadena Art Museum. "Last Judgment, Dark Shadows - The Burial of my Enemies" was completed in 1966 and was Burkhardt's first time using actual skulls in his paintings. His work evolved around themes of trying to break away from regiment and hope for peace. Another painting revolving around World War II, entitled "Horror Never Happens Again", shows a circular border or arms and hands around an iridescent figure which represents protection and safety. Burkhardt was highly praised for his mature work both in ArtNews and by critic Hilton Kramer in The New York Times. By the 1980s, Burkhardt's work had reached its fullest potential, turning from images of imbalance to tragedy. As the post-painterly Abstract Expressionist artists sought to expel this tragedy, Burkhardt embraced it. He continues to live and work in California while making occasional trips to Guadalajara, Mexico. Burkhardt's delve into the depths of human tragedy produces beauty and understanding unparalleled in Post-Modern art.
  • Creator:
    Hans Burkhardt (1904 - 1994, Swiss)
  • Creation Year:
    1935
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Width: 26 in (66.04 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Good condition, appropriate for the age of this artwork. There is some craqueleur in the sky and left and right of her torso. The painting has been cleaned and stabilized.
  • Gallery Location:
    Hudson, NY
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: BuHa0031stDibs: LU2465213919342

More From This Seller

View All
The Artist's Wife oil painting by Hans Burkhardt
By Hans Burkhardt
Located in Hudson, NY
Hans Burkhardt The Artist's Wife (1930) Oil on canvas, 20" x 16" 24" x 20 ½" x 1 ½" framed Dated 1930 lower right recto. Annotated "To Elsa HB Louise Burkhardt 1930. HB" verso. ...
Category

1930s American Modern Nude Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Girl in Elegant Dress oil painting by Ferdinand Wagner II
Located in Hudson, NY
Canvas measures 21.25" x 19.5" and the frame measures 30.5" x 25.5" x 3" Ferdinand Wagner II studied art initially with his father, a vocational art teacher. Later he attended the Munich Academy of Arts working closely with Karl von Piloty. Much of Wagner's career focused on commissions as a decorative painter. He did ceiling frescos...
Category

Late 19th Century Romantic Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Folk Singer oil painting by Byron Browne
By Byron Browne
Located in Hudson, NY
Lovely oil painting by Byron Browne. Measures 18" x 14" and framed 24" x 20" x 1 3/4". Signed "Byron Browne" lower left. Inscribed on canvas verso: Byron Browne / 1958 / – Folk Singer– / 18 x 14 / N.Y.C. About this artists: Through an oeuvre displaying the re-envisioning of figural subjects and the formation of an abstract expressionist style, Byron Browne stands out among the American abstractionists of his generation. Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1907, the artist was a bright talent at the National Academy of Design in his teens. From 1924 to 1928 Browne studied at the Academy under notable artists Robert Aitkin, Charles Courtney Curran, Charles Hawthorne, Alice Murphy...
Category

1950s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled oil painting of children playing by Eugenie Schein
Located in Hudson, NY
Eugenie Schein was both a dancer and an artist. Her artwork subjects revolved primarily around dancers and dancing, though she also captured everyday scenes in New York. Both Midto...
Category

1940s Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Untitled-053 Pastel Figure by Hans Burkhardt
By Hans Burkhardt
Located in Hudson, NY
Hans Burkhardt regularly used live models for his figural pastels, which he maintained an interest in throughout his long career. Untitled (1963) Pastel on paper 24" x 19" Signed an...
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel

Untitled-055 Pastel Figure by Hans Burkhardt
By Hans Burkhardt
Located in Hudson, NY
Hans Burkhardt frequently used live models for his figural pastels, which he maintained an interest in throughout his long career. Untitled (1972) Pastel on paper 25" x 20" Signed a...
Category

1670s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Pastel

You May Also Like

Young Girl with Her Cat
By Gunnar Donald Anderson
Located in San Francisco, CA
This artwork "Young Girl with Her Cat" c.1990 is an oil painting on panel by noted American artist Gunnar Donald Anderson, b.1927-2022. It is signed at the lower right corner by the artist. The panel size is 20 x 16 inches, framed size is 24 x 20 inches. Framed in a wooden gold frame, with fabric liner. It is in excellent condition. About the artist: Gunnar Donald Anderson, age 95 of Sonoma CA passed away on April 26, 2022. Gunnar was born to Sven Gunnar Anderson...
Category

Late 20th Century American Impressionist Animal Paintings

Materials

Oil

Woman with Cat
By Marshall Goodman
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Marshall Goodman, American (1916 - 2003) Title: Woman with Cat Year: circa 1960 Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 31 x 20 in. (78.74 x 50.8 cm)
Category

1960s American Modern Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

GIRL WITH KITTEN- In the Manner of F.Ballavoine's - Italy Oil on canvas paint
By Giulio Di Sotto
Located in Napoli, IT
Girl with kitten - Giulio Di Sotto Italia 2008 - Oil on canvas cm. 60x50 Frame available on request from our workshop. This painting is Giulio Di Sotto’s personal reinterpretation of the 19th century French painter Jules Frédéric Ballavoine...
Category

Early 2000s Old Masters Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

RAMON POCH Woman with Cat acrylic painting
By Ramon Poch
Located in CORAL GABLES - MIAMI, FL
-Woman with Cat 100 x80 cm acrylic painting Born in Badalona (Barcelona). Photographer and advertising film director. Founding partner of the advertising production company La Cosa...
Category

2010s Contemporary Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic

La fillette et le chat
Located in Barcelona, BARCELONA
Contemporary figurative painting
Category

2010s Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"The Gift" Woman in Pink Dress Holding Grey Kitten
By Katherine Fraser
Located in Philadelphia, PA
This piece titled "The Gift" is an original artwork by Katherine Fraser and is made of oil on canvas. This piece measures approximately 56”h x 58”w and is shipped in the pictured woo...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Animal Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil