163 - H. Burmeister, Still Life with Couleur Articles of the Landsmannschaft Silesia Greifswald, 1909

H. Burmeister, Still Life with Couleur Articles of the Landsmannschaft Silesia Greifswald, 1909 Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left “H. Burmeister 1909”, inscribed on the stretcher verso, academic genre piece depicting student life at the beginning of the 20th century, still life with typical couleur articles, in the centre a duelling sabre (Schläger) with a student cap placed on it, entwined with a ribbon in the colours of the Landsmannschaft Silesia Greifswald (pink, white and light blue), on the right an embroidered Stürmer cap with monogram and circle (Zirkel), together with a beer mug, green wine bottle, pipe bowl, match holder, root vegetables, open book, newspaper lying open with the headline “VC Zeitung” and cigar in the ashtray, condition commensurate with age, craquelure, paint rubbed at the edges, canvas with a hole upper right, image 52x75.5 cm (HxW) Couleur refers to the colour combination of a colour-bearing student fraternity, which appears on clothing, jewellery and objects; the most important insignia is the silk ribbon, usually 27 mm wide, worn over the right shoulder. The second most important element is the cap with the main colour in the crown, a surrounding colour stripe and a black leather peak; besides the Tellermütze and the Tönnchen, the Stürmer is one of the common cap forms. The circle (Zirkel) is the symbol of a fraternity and appears, for instance, on ribbon buttons, Tönnchen caps and Zipfel. The duelling sabre (Schläger) is the fencing weapon of the Mensur, widespread as the Korbschläger with a basket-shaped hand guard and as the Glockenschläger with a bell-shaped hand guard. A Landsmannschaft Silesia Greifswald is documented in the Coburger Convent; its alumni association (Altherrenschaft) merged in 1973 with the Landsmannschaft Alemannia Dresden zu Clausthal to form the Landsmannschaft Alemannia-Silesia Clausthal. The Vertreter-Convent (VC) was an umbrella association of colour-bearing, compulsory-fencing Turnerschaften founded in 1872, which dissolved in 1935; in 1951 the Landsmannschaften of the Deutsche Landsmannschaft and the Turnerschaften of the VC merged to form the Coburger Convent.