Hermann Max Pechstein
Hermann Max Pechstein
Vertreibung aus dem Paradies
1917
Glass mosaic, set in pale plaster. 61 x 77 x 3.3 cm. With hanging device. Unsigned. Printed number '195' verso, inscribed '33 kg' in blue chalk and with printed label from 'August Wagner/ Vereinigte Werkstätten für/ Mosaik und Glasmalerei K.G./ Berlin-Neukölln'. Vereinigte Werkstätten für Mosaik und Glasmalerei Puhl & Wagner, Gottfried Heinersdorff, Berlin-Neukölln. - In fine condition. Plaster a little rubbed at the hanging clamps; old repair to lower left corner.
We would like to thank Alexander and Julia Pechstein, Max Pechstein Urheberrechtsgemeinschaft, Hamburg/Tökendorf, for the information.
Provenance
Private collection, Hesse
Literature
Cf. Wieland, Zeitschrift für Kunst und Dichtung, vol. V, booklet 3, 1920, illus. p. 5-8 ,11, 13; Max Osborn, Max Pechstein, Berlin 1922, pp. 177-190, ill. p. 179.
In 1917 the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt commissioned Max Pechstein to create designs for a number of stained-glass windows and glass mosaics in the context of the stately redecoration of Gurlitt’s house in Potsdamer Straße. The glass-mosaic and stained-glass company Puhl & Wagner, located in the Neukölln district of Berlin, was entrusted with the works’ realisation – a remarkable commission in the midst of the First World War. For the two walls of the barrel-vaulted corridor between two large exhibition rooms, Pechstein designed a pair of monumental glass mosaics featuring biblical motifs: “Vertreibung aus dem Paradies” and “Anbetung der Könige”. The Gurlitt house was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War; however, in addition to Pechstein’s two original cartoons with his designs – one of which, the “Vertreibung aus dem Paradies” is now to be found at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (see comparative ill.) – the present trial piece, which depicts the central scene of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, has also been preserved.