Karl Hofer

Karl Hofer Mädchen am Fenster 1942 Oil on canvas. 93.5 x 75.5 cm. Framed. Mongrammed and dated 'CH 42' (ligated) lower right in dark brown. - Good condition. Wohlert 1584 Provenance Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig, Düsseldorf (1975); Collection Dr. and Mrs Jansen, North Rhine-Westphalia; thenceforth family property Exhibitions Düsseldorf Nov. 1974 - Feb. 1975 (Galerie Wilhelm Grosshennig), Ausstellungs- und Angebotskatalog Deutscher und Französischer Kunstwerke des 20. Jahrhunderts, cat. p. 52 with col. illus. ("Der gelbe Vorhang") Female figures or groups at windows are a recurring motif in Karl Hofer’s figural paintings. In the present case Hofer has intensified this classic theme – which enables artists to communicate a great variety of visual content – into a meditatively reductive and timeless statement. The round-arched form of the window, which suggests a medieval architectural setting, is already to be found in a painting created one year earlier, “Sieben Mädchen am Fenster” (Wohlert 1548), and it provides an effective frame for the half-length nude. The formal rigour of the composition is broken up by the pieces of cloth forming the curtain as well as the towel placed on the middle of the window sill. Although it is depicted in a starkly simplified manner, a certain weight becomes palpable in the material of the curtain that rests on the back of the figure’s left hand as her right hand lightly takes hold of the towel lying before her. In spite of the young woman’s unabashedly presenting herself with a bare upper body, there is nothing provocative about her appearance. Instead, she exudes an unconstrained carefreeness; her half-closed eyelids and the suggestion of a smile attest to an inward self-assurance. The differentiated handling of the paint within the composition is interesting – the black of the window’s opening, the curtain and the top of the skirt are painted in a broad and opaque manner, by contrast, the flesh tones and the surfaces of the wall have been applied through loose and semi-transparent brushwork. The result is a slightly aloof character that grants the paint an independent value beyond its representational function. Hofer’s ‘Mädchen am Fenster’, as well as the bronze ‘Der Zweifler‘ by Ernst Barlach (lot 39) and further works by artists such as Karl Hofer, Otto Mueller, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Erich Heckel and Gerhard Marcks offered in Auction 1201 Modern Art on 2 June (lots 161-164, 168, 195, 207, 225, 230, 239, 241), are from the former collection of Dr and Mrs Ludwig Jansen. True world travellers in matters of art, their collecting interest focused on Asia, from which a large number of important works feature in Auction 1203 Asian Art on 11 June.