324 - Karl Hofer (Karlsruhe 1878 - 1955 Berlin)

Karl Hofer (Karlsruhe 1878 - 1955 Berlin) Sleeping couple, 1953 oil/canvas 65,5 x 100,5 cm dated 53, monogrammed CH depicted in Eisenbeis, catalogue raisonné Karl Hofer, 2007, p. 143, no. 2661 Exhibited: K.H., Baukunst, Cologne, 1978, no. 141. SCHÄTZPREIS / ESTIMATE °€ 30000 - 40000 STARTPREIS / STARTING PRICE °€ 30000 The German painter Karl Hofer completed a commercial apprenticeship before beginning a scholarship-based course of study at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts in 1896 under Hans Thoma and Robert Poetzelberger. He continued his studies in 1902 as a master student of Leopold von Kalckreuth at the Stuttgart Academy. Supported by the patron Theodor Reinhart, he lived in Rome from 1903, traveled to Paris, India, and Norway, and settled in Paris in 1908, where he engaged with the work of Paul Cézanne and classical modernism. In 1913, he moved to Berlin, where Paul Cassirer supported him. From 1920, he taught as a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts (director from 1945 to 1951), was a co-founder of the Baden Secession, and became a member of the Prussian Academy of Arts. Hofer developed an expressive-realistic style of painting with a reduced, somber palette, addressing themes of loneliness, nudity, and quiet interiors – influenced by the Italian Pre-Renaissance, Magic Realism, Expressionism, and New Objectivity. Clear contours, flat simplification, and a melancholic atmosphere characterize his paintings, influenced by personal tragedies such as the loss of children, wartime internment, and the death of his first wife in a concentration camp. Denounced as "degenerate art" by the National Socialists (1937), he lost his teaching position in 1933 and his studio and works to bombing in 1943. After 1945, he championed figurative art and engaged Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Honors included the Berlin Art Prize and the Grand Cross of Merit. Works can be found in the National Gallery Berlin, Austrian Gallery Belvedere, Städel Museum and Albertina Vienna – parallels to Josef Floch, Georg Tappert, Hermann Haller, Leopold Ziegler, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad and Carlo Mense. 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.