Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

Frau in der Wanne (Woman in Tub) /// German Expressionism Schmidt-Rottluff Nude

1915

Artist: Hermann Max Pechstein (German, 1881-1955) Title: "Weib Vom Manne Begehrt (Woman Desired by Man)" Portfolio: Deutsche Grapiker der Gegenwart (German Printmakers of Our Time) *Unsigned edition Year: 1919, (published 1920) Medium: Original Woodcut Engraving on cream wove paper Limited edition: 500, (there was also a signed and numbered edition of 30) Printer: Unknown Publisher: Klinkhardt & Biermann, Leipzig, Germany Reference: "Das Graphische Werk Max Pechsteins" - Krüger No. 224; Fechter No. 157; Rifkind No. 2252; Söhn I, page 108-114 Sheet size: 12.75" x 9.5" Image size: 9.88" x 6.25" Condition: One small skillfully repaired tear lower left in margin. It is otherwise a strong impression in excellent condition Notes: Provenance: private collection - Kiel, Germany. Comes from the 1920 "Deutsche Grapiker der Gegenwart (German Printmakers of Our Time)" portfolio of fifteen lithographs, eight woodcuts, eight reproductions, and one lithographed cover by various artists. The artists who contributed to this portfolio were George Grosz, Ernst Barlach, Lovis Corinth, Richard Seewald, Heinrich Campendonk, Erich Heckel, Otto Mueller, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Lyonel Feininger, Conrad Felixmüller, Max Unold, Karl Caspar, Max Lieberman, René Beeh, Adolf Ferdinand Schinnerer, Ludwig Meidner, Max Beckmann, Richard Seewald, Käthe Kollwitz, August Gaul, Rudolf Grossman, Alfred Kubin, and Paul Klee. This very same work is within many permanent museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY. "Deutsche Graphiker der Gegenwart (German Printmakers of Our Time)" brings together woodcuts, lithographs, and reproductions by thirty-one artists representing a cross-section of styles from Impressionism to Expressionism, uniting under a single cover works ranging from naturalistic self-portraits to left-wing political caricatures. It features works by artists associated with the Berlin Secession (an exhibiting society comprised primarily of German Impressionists), with Expressionist groups like the Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, and with the political Novembergruppe, as well as artists like Max Beckmann who were not affliliated with any group. In his introduction, art historian Kurt Pfister identified Expressionism as the leading force in German art at the time, while stressing the plurality of approaches to style and subject matter that the movement encompassed. Pfister emphasized the openness of German artists to foreign sources, and cited the importance of Paul Cézanne, Edvard Munch, and Pablo Picasso as well as Japanese, Indian, African, and Gothic art for the development of German art. There was a fifty-year difference in age between the oldest artist, Max Liebermann, and the youngest, Conrad Felixmüller, featured in the collection. The volume also included Lyonel Feininger, an American who had lived in Germany since 1896, as well as Austrian artists Oskar Kokoschka and Alfred Kubin. Biography: Pechstein was born in Zwickau, the son of a craftsman who worked in a textile mill. Early contact with the art of Vincent van Gogh stimulated Pechstein's development toward expressionism. After studying art first at the School of Applied Arts and then at the Royal Art Academy in Dresden, Pechstein met Erich Heckel and joined the art group Die Bru¨cke in 1906. He was the only member to have formal art training. Later in Berlin, he helped to found the Neue Sezession and gained recognition for his decorative and colorful paintings that were lent from the ideas of Van Gogh, Matisse, and the Fauves. His paintings eventually became more primitivist, incorporating thick black lines and angular figures. From in 1933, Pechstein was vilified by the Nazis because of his art. A total of 326 of his paintings were removed from German museums. Sixteen of his works were displayed in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art...

Artist: Félix Bracquemond (French, 1833-1914) Title: "Canards Surpris (Surprised Ducks)" *Signed by Bracquemond in pencil lower right. It is also initial signed in ink lower left Year: 1882 Medium: Original Drypoint Etching on cream Japanese paper Limited edition: 100 Printer: Imprimerie Lemercier, Paris, France Publisher: likely the artist Bracquemond himself, Paris, France Reference: "Les graveurs du XIXe siècle: Guide de l'amateur d'estampes modernes", Vol. XII, Paris, 1885–1892 - Henri Béraldi: cat. No. 778; "Inventaire du Fonds Francais Apres 1800" - Jean Adhémar, Jacques Lethève: cat. No. 394, page 383; Laran No. 394 Framing: Recently framed in a gold Baroque moulding and rag matting from Holland Framed size: 23.75" x 19.75" Sheet size: 15.25" x 11.5" Image size: 14" x 10.5" Condition: In excellent condition Notes: "B" inscribed by Bracquemond in ink lower left. There is an example of this work in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY. Biography: Félix Bracquemond was born in Paris. He was trained in early youth as a trade lithographer, until Guichard, a pupil of Ingres, took him to his studio. His portrait of his grandmother, painted by him at the age of nineteen, attracted Théophile Gautier's attention at the Salon. He applied himself to engraving and etching about 1853, and played a leading and brilliant part in the revival of the etcher's art in France. Altogether he produced over eight hundred plates, comprising portraits, landscapes, scenes of contemporary life, and bird-studies, besides numerous interpretations of other artist's paintings, especially those of Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier, Gustave Moreau and Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. After having been attached to the Sèvres porcelain factory in 1870, he accepted a post as art manager of the Paris atelier of the firm of Haviland of Limoges. He was connected by a link of firm friendship with Édouard Manet, James McNeill Whistler, and all the other fighters in the impressionist cause, and received all the honors that await the successful artist in France, including the grade of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1889. Bracquemond was a prominent figure in artistic and literary circles in the second half of the 19th century. He was close to writers such as Edmond de Goncourt and critic Gustave Geffroy, and numbered among his friends Millet and Corot, Henri Fantin-Latour, Degas and the Impressionist circle, and Auguste Rodin. He was one of the more prolific printmakers of his time and he was awarded the grande medaille d'honneur at the Universal Exhibition of 1900. He was also a painter, ceramist, and an innovator in decorative arts. Gabriel Weisberg called him the "molder of artistic taste in his time". Indeed, it was he who recognised the beauty of the Hokusai woodcuts used as packing around a shipment of Japanese china, a discovery which helped change the look of late 19th-century art. He married French Impressionist artist Marie Bracquemond...

A superb, richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce, early etching and drypoint. With burr throughout and crisp plate edges. First state (of 2). Edition of 100. Signed in penc...

Drypoint printed in dark brown on heavy cream wove paper with wide margins. This is the third state (of four) from a small edition of only several. Signed and inscribed "II Zustand" ...