6174 - Oppler, Ernst

Oppler, Ernst Old Women’s Home in Amsterdam. Oil on canvas. 81 x 65 cm. Signed “E. Oppler.” in black brushstrokes lower left. Probably around 1908. Not in the Bruns collection. The sunlight plays charmingly among the green foliage of the trees, casting dancing patches of light on the shaded path, the figures, and the windowpanes. In front of the portal and the tall mezzanine window of the venerable building, the elderly women—wearing aprons and white bonnets—stroll alone or in pairs beneath the canopy of the avenue’s foliage. Their features appear barely individualized, so that—partly due to their uniform attire—their sense of community is emphasized in harmony with architecture, nature, and religion. Oppler models the structures of the foliage and branches in a relief-like manner using impasto paint. Oppler settled in Sluis, the Netherlands, in 1901 and created numerous genre paintings in the years that followed. Oppler was certainly inspired here by Max Liebermann’s numerous works on similar motifs; Liebermann devoted himself in his paintings—especially in the 1880s—to Dutch almshouses and orphanages. In 1908, Oppler produced two further, very similar paintings on the same motif (Bruns G-068, G-069). “Like these models, Oppler’s painting also depicts the unity of human community, nature, and architecture; here, however, nature dominates the architecture more strongly than in Liebermann’s work. (...).” (Jochen Bruns: Ernst Oppler, Cologne 1993, on G-068). Provenance: Saint Paul Auction, La Colle-sur-Loup, auction on December 8, 2024, Lot 293 (titled “Rue animée” there). Private collection, Lower Saxony. - Please request condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not specified in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.