Sixty Works by Modern Masters - Flipbook - Page 37
Hermann Max Pechstein
"Art is not a pastime, it is a duty
with respect to the people,
a public affair."
Hermann Max Pechstein
German, 1881 - 1985
Rauchende, 1921
Oil on canvas
31¾ x 39½ inches / 80 x 100 cm
Signed lower left: HMPechstein
Signed again, inscribed indistinctly and dated on the reverse: HMPechstein 1921
Pechstein had become one of the
most prominent artists in Germany
when he painted the present work.
During the summer of 1921 he
visited the small fishing village of
Leba in Eastern Pomerania (now
Poland), where he met Marta Moeller
and her sister Liese.
In this work Pechstein depicts Liese
reclining and smoking a cigarette,
using a bold application of vibrant
colour that recalls his earlier de
Brücke period (1905-1915) and his
association with the German artists
Kirchner, Heckel and Schmit-Rottluff.
Provenance
Dr. Karl Lilienfeld, Leipzig, Berlin & New York, 1932
Jacob Goldschmidt, Paris, circa 1950 (acquired from the above)
Anon. sale, Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett Roman Norbert Ketterer, Stuttgart, 26
May 1955, lot 1834
Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf, 1959 (acquired from the above)
Gallerie Kurt Meissner, Zürich, 1959 (acquired from the above)
Private collection, Germany
Anon. sale, Karl & Faber, Munich, 30 November 1979, lot 1908
Acquired at the above sale by the previous owner
Exhibited
Selm, Schloss Cappenberg, Max Pechstein, 1989, illustrated in colour in the
catalogue
Literature
Kindlers Malerei Lexicon, Zurich, 1967, vol.IV illustrated in colour, p. 75
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