225 - Georg Ehrlich* (Vienna 1897 - 1966 Lucerne)

Georg Ehrlich* (Vienna 1897 - 1966 Lucerne) The elderly Charcoal/paper 48 x 32 cm signed Ehrlich SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE °€ 1000 - 2000 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE °€ 1000 An Austrian painter and sculptor of the 20th century, he was a leading figure of Expressionism and a significant representative of exile art, hailing from a Jewish family. He studied from 1913 to 1914 at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts under Anton von Kenner and Oskar Strnad, within the context of the progressive educational theories of Franz Čižek and the early Viennese Modernist milieu that later gave rise to the University of Applied Arts. Years in Munich (1920–1922) and Berlin (until 1924) followed; there, he secured a contract with Paul Cassirer and became acquainted with Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee, and Max Beckmann. His ideal of the human figure was shaped by George Minne and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, resulting in a style of painting and sculpture that was expressive yet informed by Realism and New Objectivity, encompassing portraits, landscapes, etchings, ink drawings, and lithographs. In Vienna, he was championed primarily by Hans Tietze and Erika Tietze-Conrat; from 1925 to 1928, he was a member of the Hagenbund artists' association as well as—in broader exhibition contexts—the "Freie Bewegung" (Free Movement) group and the Deutscher Künstlerbund. From 1932 onwards, he and his wife, the artist Bettina Ehrlich (Bettina Ehrlich-Bauer), were part of the Zinkenbach Artists' Colony on Lake Wolfgang, alongside Ferdinand Kitt, Josef Dobrowsky, Ernst Huber, Ludwig Heinrich Jungnickel, Oskar Laske, Georg Merkel, Louise Merkel-Romee, Lisel Salzer, and others; his work from this period ranges from expressive landscapes and realistically rendered figures to a distinctive variation of New Objectivity. In 1937, he emigrated to England, where his experience of exile found expression in a series of graphic and biblical cycles as well as a body of poignant bronze sculptures; a notable example is the Coventry Memorial, which brings together Expressionism, religious pictorial traditions, and a modern formal language. From 1947 to 1949, he taught in the USA while simultaneously developing an extensive body of graphic work—encompassing ink drawings, etchings, and lithographs—in which illustrations for literature and poetry (such as the poem "Prayer to Enter Heaven with the Donkeys" by Francis Jammes) played a central role. In total, he left behind a significant body of work comprising portraits, landscapes, bronze sculptures, and drawings, situated within the interplay of Expressionism, Realism, New Objectivity, and the tradition of the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights and platform fee. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer's premium and platform fee. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.