1226 - OVERBECK, FRITZ

OVERBECK, FRITZ 1869 Bremen–1909 Bröcken Title: An Autumn Evening in the Moor. Date: 1898. Technique: Oil on canvas. Measurement: 113 x 175cm. Notation: Signed, inscribed and dated lower right: F. Overbeck Worpswede 98. Frame: Framed. The fact that the small village of Worpswede, located near Bremen, came to hold such a strong appeal for artists was down to a chance encounter: in 1884, Fritz Mackensen, a student at the Düsseldorf Art Academy, visited the village in the Teufelsmoor at the invitation of his landlady’s niece in the Rhineland. He was deeply impressed by the landscape, its atmosphere and the unique light. Back in Düsseldorf, he shared his discovery with his artist friends, and in 1889 Fritz Mackensen, Hans am Ende and Otto Modersohn decided to settle in Worpswede together. Fritz Overbeck joined them in 1893, and by 1894, with the arrival of Heinrich Vogeler and Carl Vinnen, the village had already become a small artists’ colony. As some of the artists also gave lessons, the circle grew. Among others, Clara Westhoff and Paula Becker – who would later marry Otto Modersohn – found their way to Worpswede. The unspoilt, flat landscape with its distinctive light conditions offered the artists ideal opportunities for their favoured form of plein air painting, through which they turned away from the academic studio tradition, following the French example of the Barbizon School and Impressionism. Rainer Maria Rilke also lived in Worpswede for a time. In the village on the moor, he found the simplicity he had longed for – and in Clara Westhoff, his future wife. The joint participation of the Worpswede artists’ circle in the 1895 Munich Annual Exhibition of Artists from All Nations, held at the Munich Glaspalast, brought the Worpswede artists to the public’s attention; they were soon to become among the best-known practitioners of naturalist painting in Germany. Fritz Overbeck’s large-scale painting "Autumn Evening in the Moor" is a quintessential example of Worpswede landscape painting. The atmosphere is characterised by the combination of the radiant light-blue sky with the simultaneously slightly diffuse, subdued lighting. Birch trunks, their tops cropped off at the top of the picture, are laden with golden autumn foliage; their reflections appear in the water of the moorland canals. At the left-hand edge of the picture, a wooden footbridge leads towards the rural buildings nestled into the landscape. This painting likely offers a different perspective on a subject that Fritz Overbeck had painted a year earlier: "The Moor Canal", which won an award and was sold at the International Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1897, was rediscovered in 2012 at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. The carefully layered peat sods and the course of the canal link these paintings thematically. Fritz Overbeck lived in Worpswede for around 12 years. In 1905, he moved to Vegesack, on the outskirts of Bremen, and during this new phase of his life he produced an increasing number of landscape paintings whilst travelling to Sylt and the high mountains. Fritz Overbeck died unexpectedly of a stroke at the age of 39. Provenance: - Private ownership, Germany. Estimated shipping costs for this lot: The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction. additional shipping insurance Shipping insurance up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo USA by individual arrangement after the auction. #Fritz Overbeck #Impressionism #Germany #19th/20th C. #Landscape #Autumn #Paintings.