1009 - Eberhard Hückstädt, Fortuna, mixed media on paper with gallery certificate, 2001

Eberhard Hückstädt, Fortuna, mixed media on paper with gallery certificate, 2001 (b. 1936 Potsdam), mixed media on paper, mounted on a support sheet, signed lower right, dated „23 III 2001“ centre right, inscribed verso in another hand, catalogue raisonné number 4247. Against a dark blue ground with a red disc of the sun in the upper left corner stands a female figure at full length, heightened in white and outlined in fine pencil drawing, her hair crowned by a white and red ornament of feathers and blossoms, cheeks accented in red. At the lower left a small unclothed putto looks up at her. With a certificate of the Galerie Hohmann, Walsrode, dated 16 October 2001. Good condition. Image 34.5 x 22 cm (HxW), mount, behind glass, framed, frame slightly bumped, overall size 62.5 x 52.5 cm (HxW) Eberhard Hückstädt, born in Potsdam in 1936, studied at the school of applied arts in Heiligendamm and from 1959 to 1964 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden. After years in Dresden and in Schwedt on the Oder, during which he was among the best-known young artists of the GDR and received the Banner of Labour and the art prize of the FDGB, he moved to Hanover in 1984. Fortuna, the Roman goddess of good luck, has been shown since antiquity with a wheel, a sphere or a cornucopia as an emblem of inconstant fortune that may turn at any moment; in the art of the early modern period she is among the most frequently depicted allegorical figures.