825 - B. Reuter, Russian parlour in Wedoranzy, mixed media on paper, dated 1917

B. Reuter, Russian parlour in Wedoranzy, mixed media on paper, dated 1917 Mixed media on paper, mounted on a support sheet, signed „B. Reuter“ and dated 1917 lower right, inscribed „Wedoranzy“ lower left, inscribed verso „Russ. Stube gem. von einem Patienten als Geschenk an [Name] 1917 in Rußland“. A view into a Russian farmhouse parlour: at the left a small window in the log wall, at the right the built stove standing open with a burning fire and stacked wood, above it poles and boards beneath the roof timbers. On the floor stand a large bulbous pot and further vessels, in front of them a brown and red hen walks, beside it sits a black cat, at the left on the bed above the chest sits a second hen. Age-appropriate condition, creased, a small loss at the right margin. Image 11 x 15 cm (HxW), behind glass, framed, frame bumped, overall size 17 x 22 cm (HxW) The Russian farmhouse parlour was organised around the great built stove, which served as cooking place, heating and sleeping place in one and formed the centre of rural living; implements, stores and often the small livestock too shared the single heated room with the inhabitants. The inscription on the reverse dates the sheet to the year 1917 on the eastern front and names it as the gift of a patient – a testimony of the military hospital work of the First World War, from which numerous small-format works on paper survive.