271 - Rudolf Levy

Rudolf Levy 1875 Stettin – 1944 Auschwitz – "Cassis I" – (1911) Oil on canvas. 54.5 x 65 cm. 67 x 78 cm (dimensions including frame). Signed and dated lower right: R Levy 1911. Below, the location is indicated: Cassis. Framed. Restored. Two small patches on the reverse. - Provenance: Erna Schultze Cohnitz (1884–1971) / Ernst Cohnitz, Judicial Councilor, Berlin until 1971 / Margit Fischer-Cohnitz, Berlin / Heirs of Margit Fischer-Cohnitz, Berlin (Ernst Ludwig Fischer and his wife Gesine Fischer) / Heir Philipp Fischer - Exhibition: Matisse and His German Students. Exhibition at the Pfalzgalerie in Kaiserslautern and the Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg from May 28 to July 17, 1988. - Bibliography: Thesing, Susanne. Rudolf Levy (1875–1944). Life and Work. Nuremberg 1990, No. 25 (p. 92, with full-page illustration on p. 80). -- “Matisse and His German Students.” Exhibition catalog, Pfalzgalerie Kaiserslautern, May 28 through July 17, 1988, and Ostdeutsche Galerie Regensburg, July 28 through September 18, 1988. Kaiserslautern 1988, no. 45 (with full-page illustration on p. 95). - A certificate from the Art Loss Register (ALR Ref: S00277162), London, October 19, 2026, is on hand. Rudolf Levy ranks among the leading German artists of classical modernism, whose work was significantly influenced by the French avant-garde. As a student of Henri Matisse in Paris, he belonged to the circle of German painters who engaged early on with the revolutionary achievements of Fauvism. The painting “Cassis I,” created in 1911, is a characteristic testament to this pioneering creative phase. In the landscape of southern France—which had already inspired Paul Cézanne to a fundamental renewal of painting—Levy developed a distinctive visual language that balanced Fauvist color intensity with a constructive approach to form. Vibrant shades of blue, green, and ochre, a free, energetic brushstroke, and the generous composition of the landscape lend the work a remarkable painterly immediacy. The painting impressively documents Levy’s engagement with the central artistic movements of his time. Its presentation in the 1988 exhibition “Matisse and His German Students” as well as the detailed appreciation in Susanne Thesing’s authoritative monograph underscore its art-historical significance.