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Item Ships From: Berlin
Blessed are the merciful / - The support of care -
Located in Berlin, DE
Nehmer, Rudolf (1912-1983), Blessed are the merciful, 1948
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), Blessed are the merciful, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 18.8 cm x ...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Little mouse / - Hypertrophic filigree -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), Little mouse, 1968. Lithograph, 30 cm x 21 (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[19]68”, identified as copy no. 1...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The Zero Hour / - After the End of the World -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The Zero Hour, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 20 cm x 14.8 cm (image), 43 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[olf] Nehmer” i...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
The Fieldman and Death / - Sowing and Harvest -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The Fieldman and Death, around 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 16.8 cm x 15.8 cm (depiction), 42 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signe...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Mountain landscape / - Man as Part of the Landscape -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Mountain landscape, 1896. Algraph on strong wove paper, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenössisches Kunstblatt Nr. 14...
Category
1890s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The Lost Trace / - The Holy Night as a real dream -
By Ernst Fuchs
Located in Berlin, DE
Ernst Fuchs (1930 Vienna - 2015 ibid), The Lost Trace, 1972. Vernis mou and aquatint etching, 46.8 x 36.4 cm (plate), 66 x 50 cm (sheet), 69.5 x 53.5 cm (frame), WVZ Hartmann no. 185...
Category
1970s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Blessed are the spiritually poor / - The Abundance of Poverty -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), Blessed are the spiritually poor, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 20 cm x 15 cm (image), 45 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Ru...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Field - Field research -
Located in Berlin, DE
Karl Ludwig Mordstein (1937 Füssen - 2006 Wilszhofen), Field 1983. Color etching, copy 13/65, 22.5 x 28 cm (image), 40 x 45 cm (sheet), 43 x 48 cm (frame), titled, numbered, monogram...
Category
1980s Abstract Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Aus dem Totenbuch einer Stadt (IV) - The presence of the submerged -
Located in Berlin, DE
Karl Ludwig Mordstein (1937 Füssen - 2006 Wilszhofen), From the Book of the Dead of a City (IV), 1983. Color etching, copy 16/60, 15.5 x 18.5 cm (imag...
Category
1980s Abstract Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
General Wilhelm von Blume - Visionary retrospective -
Located in Berlin, DE
Bernhard Pankok (1872 Münster - 1943 Baierbrunn), General Wilhelm von Blume, 1915, aquatint etching, 34 x 29.5 cm (sheet size), 26 x 22 cm (plate size), signed in the plate at upper left, in pencil at lower right and dated in pencil at lower left.
- At lower left old collection stamp, at the right broad margin with a small spot, otherwise very good condition.
About the artwork
The 1915 aquatint etching of General Wilhelm von Blume is based on a 1912 oil painting in the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur in Münster. A second oil portrait of the general by Pankok is in the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. When Pankok painted the first oil portrait in 1912, the general had already been retired for 16 years. It is therefore a retrospective portrait. Accordingly, the orientation of his head is such that he is looking back in both the oil painting and the etching. Without fixing on anything in particular, he looks thoughtfully inwards and reflects on his life. Uniformed and highly endowed, it is his military activities in particular that he is reviewing attentively and, as his gaze reveals, quite critically.
Pankok has literally written the sum of his experiences on Wilhelm von Blume's face: The physiognomy is a veritable landscape of folds, furrows, ridges and gullies, all the more striking against the flat background. It is clear that each of the medals was also won through suffering. However, by breaking the boundaries of the picture, his bust appears as an unshakable massif, which gives the general a stoic quality.
The fact that the design of the portrait was important to Pankok can be seen from the different versions, the present sheet being the third and probably final revision, which Pankok dates precisely to 18 February 1915. Compared with the previous state, the light background now has a dark area against which the sitter's face stands out, the dark background in turn combining with the uniform to create a new tension in the picture.
Pankok's taking up of the portrait of the high-ranking military veteran and its graphic reproduction can also be seen in relation to the First World War, which had broken out in the meantime. In the face of modern weapons of mass destruction, Wilhelm von Blume's warfare and military writings were relics of a bygone, more value-oriented era.
About the artist
After studying at the Düsseldorf Art Academy from 1889 to 1891 under Heinrich Lauenstein, Adolf Schill, Hugo Crola, and Peter Janssen the Elder, Bernhard Pankok went to Munich in 1892, where he worked primarily as a graphic artist for the two major Jugendstil magazines "Pan" and "Jugend," which established his artistic success. Through this work he met Emil Orlik, with whom he had a lifelong friendship.
In 1897, he exhibited his first furniture, and in 1898, together with Richard Riemerschmid, Bruno Paul and Hermann Obrist...
Category
1910s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Anton Stankowski, Lithograph, serigraph, signed and numb. Geometric Composition
Located in Berlin, DE
Anton Stankowski, lithograph (serigraph).
Signed and numbered.
Gemotetric composition.
Dimensions with frame.
Anton Stankowski was born in Gelsen...
Category
20th Century Abstract Geometric Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Lithograph
Faune Dévoilant une Dormeuse
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Berlin, DE
Signed in pencil lower right 'Picasso'. Plate 27 of the 'Suite Vollard'. One of 250 impressions. Paris, Édition Vollard, 1939. On Montval-wove paper watermarked 'Vollard'. One of th...
Category
1930s Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Aquatint, Black and White
Agony - The architecture of decay -
Located in Berlin, DE
Jörg Olberg (*1956 Dresden), Agony, 1987. etching, E.A. (edition of 30), 24 x 17 cm (image), 46 x 37 cm (sheet), each signed in pencil lower right "Olberg" and dated "IX [19]87", inscribed lower left "E.A. [Epreuve d'Artiste]".
- minimal crease and dust stains in the broad margin
- The architecture of decay -
About the artwork
Jörg Olberg draws here the sum of his artistic study of the Berlin ruins, which were still present in the cityscape well into the 80s. With his work "Agony" he creates an allegory of decay. Positioned in the landscape of ruins, a ruined house grows before the viewer, rising like the Tower of Babel into the sky, its roof and gable brightly illuminated by the sun. But already the roof shows mostly only the rafters, and as the gaze is drawn further down, the building visibly disintegrates, the beams protruding in all directions looking like splintered bones. Slowly but inexorably - in agony - the house will collapse in on itself and become nothing more than the burial mound of itself. At the same time, the small-scale stone composition and the plaster form a pattern-like ornamentation of decay.
The tension in the picture is fed by the counter-movement of growth and collapse, which is heightened by the dramatic formation of clouds. The swirls of clouds are reminiscent of a world landscape...
Category
1980s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching, Paper
Muse with Radio / - Modern twitter -
Located in Berlin, DE
Werner Klemke (1917 Weißensee - 1994 Berlin), Muse with Radio, 1969. Wood engraving on Japanese paper. 17.5 cm x 8 cm (image), 23.5 cm x 12.5 cm (sheet size), with signed and dated d...
Category
1960s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Performance by members of the Deutsches Theater zu Berlin / - Ornamental Flow -
By Emil Orlik
Located in Berlin, DE
Emil Orlik (1870 Prague - 1932 Berlin), Ensemble guest performance by members of the Deutsches Theater zu Berlin, 1899. Color lithograph on wove paper, 20 cm x 13.3 cm (image), 29.5 ...
Category
1890s Jugendstil Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Adam und Eva
By Max Beckmann
Located in Berlin, DE
Signed in pencil lower right Beckmann. From the edition of 50 impressions on different papers. Aside from this edition, Hofmaier records 4 proof impressions (II and III A). Strong im...
Category
1910s Expressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Drypoint
Mockery / - Desk Perpetrators -
By Josef Scharl
Located in Berlin, DE
Josef Scharl (1896 Munich - 1954 New York), Mockery, 1935 (1964), Bronner 30 A. Woodcut on Japanese paper, 51.8 x 25.7 cm (image), 65 cm x 37 cm (sheet size), signed lower right in t...
Category
1930s Expressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Salvador Dalí, LES DAMES DE LA RENAISSANCE, 1971 Hand signed and numbered.
By Salvador Dalí
Located in Berlin, DE
Salvador Dalí, LES DAMES DE LA RENAISSANCE, 1971
Hand signed and numbered.
Etching on Japanese paper.
Signed "Dalí" lower right and numbered "21/120" left.
Dimensions are with fra...
Category
20th Century Abstract Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Pair of antique color lithographs, birds, ornithology, zoology, nature.
Located in Berlin, DE
Pair of antique color lithographs, birds, ornithology, zoology, nature.
Dimensions WITH frame in cm EACH Work: 36 x 45
Category
19th Century Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Lithograph
Blessed are the peacemakers / - Dehumanization -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), Blessed are the peacemakers, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 18 cm x 15.5 cm (image), 45 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Adam and Eve / - United in Death -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Adam and Eve, 1897. Algraph on strong wove paper, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenössisches Kunstblatt Nr. 113’, 44...
Category
Early 1900s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Gerhart Hauptmann / - Modern Classicism -
By Emil Orlik
Located in Berlin, DE
Emil Orlik (1870 Prague - 1932 Berlin), Gerhart Hauptmann, 1922. Etching, 17.5 cm x 14 cm (image), 30 cm x 23.8 cm (sheet size), signed in pencil “Emil Orlik” and inscribed “Probedru...
Category
1920s Impressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Access
Located in Berlin, DE
Willibrord Haas (*1936 Schramberg), Access, 1979. etching, 40 cm x 30 cm (plate size), 54 cm x 37.5 cm (sheet size). Signed “Willibrord Haas” in pencil by the artist, dated “1979”, t...
Category
1970s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Portrait of a Man / - Lost in Black -
By Josef Scharl
Located in Berlin, DE
Josef Scharl (1896 Munich - 1954 New York), Portrait of a Man, 1937 (1964), Bronner 43 A. Woodcut on Japanese paper, 44 cm x 30.5 cm (image), 63 cm x 46.5 cm (sheet size), signed “J[...
Category
1930s Expressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Blessed are the pure in heart / - The Vision of the Child's Eyes -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), Blessed are the pure in heart, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 17.8 cm x 15.4 cm (image), 35 cm x 25 cm (sheet size), signed “R...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
The tilt of the day / - Suffering and Love -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The tilt of the day, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 14.3 cm x 15 cm (image), 43 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[olf] Neh...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
The fruitless tree / - The End of the Grotesque Era -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The fruitless tree, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 15 cm x 14.6 cm (image), 45 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[olf] Nehm...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Minotaure caressant du mufle la maine dune dormeuse
By Pablo Picasso
Located in Berlin, DE
Signed in pencil lower right 'Picasso'. Plate 39 of the 'Suite Vollard'. One of 250 impressions. Paris, Édition Vollard, 1939. On Montval-wove paper watermarked 'Vollard'. One of th...
Category
1930s Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Drypoint
Head / - Mental thunderstorm of war -
By Georg Tappert
Located in Berlin, DE
Georg Tappert (1880 Berlin - 1957 Berlin), Head, 1918 (1964). Wietek 110. Estate print from 1964. Linocut on Japan, 17 cm x 24.5 cm (depiction), 24 cm x 31.5 cm (sheet size), marked ...
Category
1910s Expressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The Lady with the Dog / - Like the master, so the dog -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), The Lady with the Dog, 1971. Lithograph, 33 cm x 26 (image), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed in pencil at lower right "R.[ein] Schwarz", dated "...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Under the mask of the Venetian girl / - Monstrous Reality -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), Under the mask of the Venetian girl, 1968. Lithograph, 30 cm x 24 (image), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower r...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Death as a servant / - Concise congeniality -
Located in Berlin, DE
Alfred Rethel after (1816 Diepenbenden - 1859 Düsseldorf), Death as a servant, around 1920. Color woodcut by Oskar Bangemann after a drawing by Rethel created around 1845 on handmade...
Category
1910s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Boy at the source / - Elixir of Life -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Boy at the source, 1897. Algraph on strong wove paper after a drawing from 1897, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenös...
Category
1890s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Muse / - In the realm of the muses -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Muse, 1893. Algraph on strong wove paper, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenössisches Kunstblatt Nr. 174’, 43.5 cm x ...
Category
1890s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Southern German summer landscape / - The profile of the landscape -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), Southern German summer landscape, around 1897. Algraph on strong wove paper, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenössisc...
Category
1890s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
S. Anton Patenkirchen / - The Home of the Landscape -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), S. Anton Patenkirchen, 1895. Algraph on strong wove paper, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenössisches Kunstblatt Nr....
Category
1890s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
At the pond / - The longing of the landscape -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Thoma (1839 Bernau - 1924 Karlsruhe), At the pond, 1897. Algraph on strong wove paper, published by Breitkopf und Härtel in Leipzig as ‘Zeitgenössisches Kunstblatt Nr. 148’, 23....
Category
1890s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The Hut / - The head of the hat -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), The Hut, 1967. Lithograph, 32.5 cm x 32.5 (depiction), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[19]67”...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Kufi poses
Located in Berlin, DE
Willibrord Haas (*1936 Schramberg), Kufi poses, 2012. Etching, 44 cm x 32 cm (plate size), 54 cm x 37.5 cm (sheet size). Signed “Willibrord Haas” in lead by the artist, dated “2012”,...
Category
2010s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Rudolf v. Rittner as Florian Geyer - Last man standing -
By Lovis Corinth
Located in Berlin, DE
Lovis Corinth (1858 Tapiau - 1925 Zandvoort), Rudolf von Rittner as Florian Geyer, 1924 (Müller 854), drypoint signed in pencil. 20.4 × 14.2 (plate size), 37.7 × 30.6 cm (sheet size). Published by Karl Nierendorf, Berlin. Framed in a passepartout.
- Strong, precise impression. Frame a little bit rubbed and with two small damages.
About the artwork
The knight is a leitmotif in Lovis Corinth's work, culminating in his Self-Portrait in Armour of 1914. Of all the paintings on this theme, Corinth most often depicted Florian Geyer. Descended from a Franconian noble family, he fought for the freedom of the peasants during the peasant wars of the Reformation, first diplomatically and then militarily, leading the legendary Schwarzen Haufen (Black Troops). The name derives from the black uniforms with which Geyer dressed the peasants willing to fight.
During the Napoleonic occupation, the freedom fighter Florian Geyer was sung about by the Romantics, and the free corps Die Schwarze Schaar, founded in 1813 by Major von Lützow, succeeded the Schwarzer Haufen. It was against this historical background that Gerhard Hauptmann wrote the revolutionary drama Florian Geyer, which premiered at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1896. While the actor Rudolf Rittner, who would later appear in Fritz Lang's films, initially played the role of Schäferhans, he took over the leading role in the new production at Berlin's Lessing Theatre in 1904, again directed by Emil Lessing, which established his fame as an actor. Hauptmann himself praised the acting. He wrote to Hugo von Hofmannsthal: "It went quite well with Florian Geyer. In any case, I had the great pleasure of seeing the play again in an admirable performance". And Lovis Corinth was so taken with Rittner's performance that he painted an oil portrait of him in the role of Florian Geyer in 1906.
After two further graphic versions in 1915 and 1920/21, Corinth returned to the painting a year before his death and almost twenty years after the oil painting to create this graphic version in 1924. Even the inscription in the picture was taken over. This proves all the more the importance of the knight and freedom fighter for Corinth's self-image.
The oil painting, in particular, proclaims the single-minded determination to fight to the last for the values defended, manifested in the oil painting by the tattered flag held out to the enemy. There is a parallel with Rainer Maria Rilke's 1899 story The Cornet, in which the protagonist goes down with the flag that he first saved at the risk of his life.
Consequently, the portrait is also a self-portrait, and the knight's armour is not an academic costume or an ironic refraction, but an expression of Corinth's self-image, which also includes his self-representation as an artist. The Secession poster...
Category
1920s Expressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
The Reconciliation / - Togetherness -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The Reconciliation, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 20 cm x 15 cm (image), 45 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[olf] Nehmer...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
The birds under the sky / - The Sunbird -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The birds under the sky, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 11 cm x 18 cm (depiction), 43 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[ol...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Greed / - The Poverty of Wealth -
Located in Berlin, DE
Rudolf Nehmer (1912 Bobersberg - 1983 Dresden), The birds under the sky, 1948. Woodcut on yellowish wove paper, 11 cm x 18 cm (depiction), 43 cm x 30 cm (sheet size), signed “Rud.[ol...
Category
1940s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Woodcut
Entangled
Located in Berlin, DE
Willibrord Haas (*1936 Schramberg), Entangled, 2008. etching, 28 cm (height) x 17 cm (width). Signed “Willibrord Haas” in pencil by the artist, dated “2008”, titled “Verschränkt” and...
Category
Early 2000s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Twelve variations on a dice theme / - The Musical Proportions of the Cube -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Rudolf Bosshard (*1929 Balm-Lottstetten), Twelve variations on a dice theme, 1962. Portfolio with inserted cover sheet and twelve woodcuts on thin Japanese paper. Copy no. 2/10,...
Category
1960s Minimalist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Six variations on a circular theme / - The Musical Proportions of the Circle -
Located in Berlin, DE
Hans Rudolf Bosshard (*1929 Balm-Lottstetten), Six variations on a circular theme, 1967. Portfolio with inserted cover sheet and six color woodcuts on thin Japanese paper. Copy no. 6...
Category
1960s Minimalist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Rising
Located in Berlin, DE
Willibrord Haas (*1936 Schramberg), Rising, 1980. Etching, 35 cm x 22 cm (plate size), 53.5 cm x 38 cm (sheet size). Signed “Willibrord Haas” in pencil by the artist, dated “1980”, t...
Category
1980s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Evening - The depth of the visible -
Located in Berlin, DE
Max Clarenbach (1880 Neuss - Cologne 1952), Evening. Etching, 18 x 41 cm (platemark), 33.5 x 57 cm (frame), inscribed "Abend" in pencil at lower left, signed and dated "M. Clarenbach. 28.III.[19]09". Framed and mounted under glass.
- Somewhat browned and slightly foxed.
About the artwork
The horizontally elongated etching depicts the panoramic view of a small town as seen from the other side of the river. There are gabled houses on the left and a mighty church spire on the right. The bourgeois houses and the large religious building indicate the urban character. These buildings are rendered in dark tones to emphasise the lighter row of houses in the centre of the picture, closer to the water. The chiaroscuro contrast creates two parallel planes that open up a space for the imagination of what the city could be. The imagination is stimulated by the almost entirely dark, barely recognisable buildings, while the arm of the river leading into the city further stimulates the imagination.
However, as the silhouette of the city as a whole is reflected in the water, the parallel planes are perceived as a band of houses that stretches across the entire horizontality of the etching and seems to continue beyond the borders of the picture. The reflection has almost the same intensity as the houses themselves, so that the band of buildings merges with their reflection to form the dominant formal unit of the picture. Only the parallel horizontal hatching creates the convincing impression of seeing water, demonstrating Max Clarenbach's mastery of the etching needle.
The water is completely motionless, the reflection unclouded by the slightest movement of the waves, creating a symmetry within the formal unity of the cityscape and its reflection that goes beyond the motif of a mere cityscape. A pictorial order is established that integrates everything in the picture and has a metaphysical character as a structure of order that transcends the individual things. This pictorial order is not only relevant in the pictorial world, but the picture itself reveals the order of the reality it depicts. Revealing the metaphysical order of reality in the structures of its visibility is what drives Clarenbach as an artist and motivates him to return to the same circle of motifs.
The symmetry described is at the same time inherent an asymmetry that is a reflection on art: While the real cityscape is cut off at the top of the picture, two chimneys and above all the church tower are not visible, the reflection illustrates reality in its entirety. The reflection occupies a much larger space in the picture than reality itself. Since antiquity, art has been understood primarily as a reflection of reality, but here Clarenbach makes it clear that art is not a mere appearance, which can at best be a reflection of reality, but that art has the potential to reveal reality itself.
The revealed structure of order is by no means purely formalistic; it appears at the same time as the mood of the landscape. The picture is filled with an almost sacred silence. Nothing in the picture evokes a sound, and there is complete stillness. There are no people in Clarenbach's landscape paintings to bring action into the picture. Not even we ourselves are assigned a viewing position in the picture, so that we do not become thematic subjects of action. Clarenbach also refrains from depicting technical achievements. The absence of man and technology creates an atmosphere of timelessness. Even if the specific date proves that Clarenbach is depicting something that happened before his eyes, without the date we would not be able to say which decade, or even which century, we are in. The motionless stillness, then, does not result in time being frozen in the picture, but rather in a timeless eternity that is nevertheless, as the title "Abend" (evening), added by Clarenbach himself, makes clear, a phenomenon of transition. The landscape of the stalls is about to be completely plunged into darkness, the buildings behind it only faintly discernible. The slightly darkened state of the sheet is in keeping with this transitional quality, which also lends the scene a sepia quality that underlines its timelessness. And yet the depiction is tied to a very specific time. Clarenbach dates the picture to the evening of 28 March 1909, which does not refer to the making of the etching, but to the capture of the landscape's essence in the landscape itself.
If the real landscape is thus in a state of transition, and therefore something ephemeral, art reveals its true nature in that reality, subject to the flow of phenomena, is transferred to an eternal moment, subject to a supra-temporal structure of order - revealed by art. Despite this supratemporality, the picture also shows the harbingers of night as the coming darkening of the world, which gives the picture a deeply melancholy quality, enhanced by the browning of the leaf.
It is the philosophical content and the lyrical-melancholic effect of the graphic that give it its enchanting power. Once we are immersed in the image, it literally takes a jerk to disengage from it.
This etching, so characteristic of Max Clarenbach's art, is - not least because of its dimensions - a major work in his graphic oeuvre.
About the artist
Born into poverty and orphaned at an early age, the artistically gifted young Max Clarenbach was discovered by Andreas Achenbach and admitted to the Düsseldorf Art Academy at the age of 13.
"Completely penniless, I worked for an uncle in a cardboard factory in the evenings to pay for my studies.”
- Max Clarenbach
At the academy he studied under Arthur Kampf, among others, and in 1897 was accepted into Eugen Dücker...
Category
Early 1900s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
The Mother / - Violated Motherhood -
By Georg Tappert
Located in Berlin, DE
Georg Tappert (1880 Berlin - 1957 Berlin), The Mother, 1918 (1964). Estate print from 1964. Linocut on Japan, 31.5 cm x 20 cm (image), 44.5 cm x 28 cm (sheet size), marked lower left...
Category
1910s Expressionist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The completely naked prostration
Located in Berlin, DE
Willibrord Haas (*1936 Schramberg), The completely naked prostration, 1999. Etching, 32.5 cm x 23.5 cm (plate size), 54 cm x 37.5 cm (sheet size). Signed “Willibrord Haas” in lead by...
Category
1990s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Reproachful
Located in Berlin, DE
Willibrord Haas (*1936 Schramberg), Reproachful, 2010. etching, 33.5 cm x 20 cm (plate size), 54 cm x 37.5 cm (sheet size). Signed “Willibrord Haas” in lead by the artist, dated “201...
Category
2010s Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
Chief John Winston Ono Lennon! / - Chief of the Pop -
Located in Berlin, DE
Fred Tiger (*1976), Chief John Winston Ono Lennon!, 2020. Hand-finished canvas print, 60 cm (height) x 40 cm (width), signed “Fred Tiger” lower right and dated “2020”, on the reverse...
Category
2010s Pop Art Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Canvas
Indistinct Clear - Fluctuating ambivalence -
Located in Berlin, DE
Karl Ludwig Mordstein (1937 Füssen - 2006 Wilszhofen), Undeutlicher deutlich, 1982. Color etching, e.a. (Epreuve d'artiste) 4/9, 22.5 x 28 cm (image), 40 x 45 cm (sheet), 43 x 48 cm ...
Category
1980s Abstract Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
View of a coastal town / - The Pilgrim's View -
Located in Berlin, DE
Albert Ernst (1909 Fronhofen - 1996 Hamburg), View of a Coastal Town, etching, 30 x 37 cm (picture), 45 x 50.5 cm (frame), signed in pencil lower right "Albert Ernst", framed under g...
Category
Mid-20th Century Realist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Colors / - The Pictures of Concepts -
Located in Berlin, DE
Heinz Gappmayr (1925 Innsbruck - 2010 ibid), Colors, 1993. Linen box with ten aquatint etchings on handmade paper and two text sheets. Published by Dorothea van der Koelen, Mainz. Co...
Category
1990s Minimalist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The man with the scissors / - The Instrument of Reality Formation -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), The man with the scissors, 1969. Lithograph, 30 cm x 21 (depiction), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, ...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The Dirndl Model / - The strangeness of the homeland -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), The Dirndl Model, 1969. Lithograph, 33 cm x 26 (depiction), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[1...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
The Hunchback / - Strange beauty -
By Reiner Schwarz
Located in Berlin, DE
Reiner Schwarz (*1940 Hirschberg), The Hunchback, 1969. Lithograph, 33 cm x 22 (depiction), 59 cm x 42 cm (sheet size), signed “R.[einer] Schwarz” in pencil lower right, dated “[19]6...
Category
1960s Surrealist Berlin - Prints and Multiples
Materials
Paper
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