7039 - Pechstein, Hermann Max

Pechstein, Hermann Max Fishing Boats on the Curonian Spit Colored oil pastels on thin writing paper (with the imprint “Kaiserl. Postamt, Aurich” on the reverse). 1911. 16.6 x 20.3 cm. Monogrammed “HMP” (ligated) in pencil in the upper right and dated. The chalk drawing was created during Pechstein’s second trip to Nidden on the Curonian Spit. Just a few years earlier, the Brücke artist had discovered the small fishing village as a refuge for himself and spent the summer months there from 1908 to 1912 to escape the big city and live in harmony with nature and in tune with the daily rhythm of the local fishermen. From then on, Pechstein tirelessly painted and drew the sea, the dunes, the waves and the spray, the sun and the storm—but above all, the fishermen in their daily surroundings, as well as moored boats and cutters with their steep masts. In a sketchy style, almost bordering on abstraction, Pechstein opens the view from a hilltop beyond the wooden roofs of the fishermen’s huts out to the open sea as far as the horizon, and with a sure hand adds large swaths of color in orange, blue, and green. Everything points to the approaching fall: bold black hatching marks the rough sea, while white chalk strokes mimic the white caps of the waves. Together with the complementary contrasts, this creates a passionate, expressive dynamism and a lively harmony. A copy of a written certificate of authenticity from Alexander Pechstein, Dobersdorf, dated December 8, 2017, is available. Provenance: Private collection, Berlin Doyle, New York, auction November 15, 2017, Lot 11 Private collection, Rhineland Exhibition: “The Young Pechstein,” University of the Arts Berlin in collaboration with the National Gallery of the former State Museums Berlin-Charlottenburg, exhibition catalog, Berlin 1959, cat. no. 123 - 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.