3024 - MAX BURI

MAX BURI (Burgdorf 1868–1915 Interlaken) Singende Haslibergerinnen. 1905. Oil on canvas. Signed centre right: MAX BURI. 46.5 × 73 cm. Provenance: - Probably private collection, H. Baumgartner, acquired directly from the artist. - Auction Auktionshaus Zofingen, Zofingen, 5 December 2009, lot 2779. - Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction. The painting depicts two young singers wearing traditional costumes from the Brienz region. Their full skirts, puff-sleeved blouses, brightly patterned shawls draped over their shoulders and broad-brimmed straw hats lend the two women a vivid presence. Max Buri captures them in the act of singing, their mouths slightly open, wholly absorbed in their performance and making no attempt to meet the viewer’s gaze. In portraying these two women, the artist places traditional dress at the centre of the composition, emphasising its symbolic significance as an expression of regional identity. Yet this depiction of rural life also belongs to a period of profound social change, which affected the Alpine regions around the turn of the twentieth century. Buri thus made everyday life and local traditions central subjects of his painting. The two young women also appear in a larger composition entitled ‘Am Stammtisch’, now held by the Stefanini Foundation.