3233 - Max Gubler

Max Gubler 1898 Zurich 1973 Limmat Landscape, Winter, Unterengstringen. 1945 Oil on canvas Inventory stamp No. R129 on the reverse Framed 114 × 144 cm Private collection, Switzerland Rudolf Frauenfelder/Walter Hess/Karl Mannhart, Max Gubler. Catalog of Paintings, Vol. 2: 1937–1949, Zurich 1977, p. 181, no. 1018 (with illustration). Max Gubler. Retrospective Exhibition, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen, September 1–October 28, 1962, no. 562 (label on the reverse); Max Gubler, Galleria Castelnuovo, Ascona, July 28–September 21, 1973 (titled “Winter Landscape” here, illustrated in the exhibition catalog, p. 14) Max Gubler’s work is characterized by an immediate, free visual language in which his perception of nature is combined with an expressive use of color and form. Particularly in his landscapes, Gubler sought not so much a detailed reproduction of the visible as a painterly distillation of it. In the wintry “Limmat Landscape,” created in 1945, a lively, almost abstract brushwork is evident. The swift and vigorous brushstrokes lend the landscape a remarkable dynamism. Snow-covered hills, trees, and barns blend with the rolling hills in the background to form a powerful composition in which representational realism and painterly freedom converge. Particularly appealing is the unusually colorful atmosphere for a winter Swiss landscape. White, gray, and blue engage in a compelling dialogue with shades of brown and ocher, which lend the painting warmth and vitality. Although the light remains diffuse and a radiant sun is absent, the landscape appears neither gloomy nor inhospitable, but rather cheerful, open, and imbued with a quiet, positive atmosphere. It is precisely the interplay of dynamic brushwork, nuanced coloration, and restrained lighting that gives the painting its special radiance: Winter appears here not as a time of stagnation, but as a living, colorfully animated state of nature. Auction Date: November 28, 2026 Approximate Auction Time: 3:53 p.m. CET