7140 - Meidner, Ludwig

Meidner, Ludwig Self-Portrait Oil on hardboard. 50 x 43 cm. Monogrammed “LM” in dark brown with a brush in the upper left corner. The artist observes his own aged yet still spirited features with the same keen awareness with which he observes his surroundings. With a loving and light touch, he renders the familiar features, allowing a radiant light from the upper left to cast bright reflections on the bald head, cheek, and bridge of the nose, and lending the face a healthy, lively, and fresh complexion. The greenish-brown background, which at first glance appears subdued, reveals upon closer inspection—through the dynamic brushstrokes—a multitude of nuanced color shades that play around the contours of the bust and create a glow in the upper left, near the monogram, that shimmers like the evening sky. We thank Erik Riedel of the Ludwig Meidner Archive at the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt am Main for his helpful comments dated August 22, 2025. Provenance: Private collection, New York William Doyle, New York, auction June 11, 2025, Lot 644 Private collection, Austria - Please request condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.