867 - Otto Pippel, “Herbstsonne”, autumnal woodland meadow with cattle by the water

Otto Pippel, “Herbstsonne”, autumnal woodland meadow with cattle by the water (Lodz 1878 to 1960 Planegg near Munich). Oil on canvas, signed in block letters at lower right “Otto Pippel.”. Verso on the upper stretcher bar the printed artist’s label “OTTO PIPPEL, PLANEGG BEI MÜNCHEN”, on it handwritten in ink “Herbstsonne”. Autumnal woodland meadow: tall trees with golden-yellow foliage frame on left and right the view of a sunlit meadow, behind it a dense edge of woodland in brown and ochre under a bright sky. On the meadow four cattle in brown and white, one standing, two drinking at the bank with lowered heads, one lying in the grass; by a tree trunk stands a woman with white bonnet, red bodice and dark blue skirt. In the foreground the still water with reflections. Impasto paint applied in short strokes and with the palette knife. Included with the lot a typewritten letter on the artist’s letterhead, Planegg vor München, Heimstättenallee 12, dated “den 29. 4. 55.”, signed by hand “Otto Pippel”; in it the artist announces the dispatch of the painting to the recipient. Good age-appropriate condition, soiled, partial craquelure. Image 81x71 cm (HxW), in a stucco frame with rocaille corners, central cartouches and running floral scroll, frame bumped, frame width 11 cm. Otto Pippel is regarded as one of the most important late Impressionists in southern Germany. After the Strasbourg School of Applied Arts and studies in Karlsruhe he came in 1907 to the Dresden Academy under Gotthardt Kuehl, who introduced him to Impressionism; a stay in Paris in 1908/09 with the encounter with the French Impressionists proved formative. From 1909 he lived in Planegg near Munich, made his debut in 1911 at the Munich Glaspalast and belonged to the Luitpoldgruppe from 1912. His oeuvre comprises around 1750 large-format paintings and is represented among others in the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, and the Städtische Galerie Rosenheim. Characteristic is the impasto, shimmering application of paint in which the painter’s gesture remains visible.