35 - Albert Birkle

Albert Birkle Der Jäger 1928 Oil on artist's board, trimmed. 59.5 x 51 cm. Framed. Artist's name "a.birkle" in ochre by an unknown hand lower right. - Very good condition. We would like to thank Roswita and Viktor Pontzen, Archiv und Werkbetreuung Albert Birkle, Salzburg, for scientific advice. The work is recorded in the internal works catalogue under number 911. Provenance Acquired directly from the artist by the previous owner; thenceforth, family ownership, Baden-Wuerrttemberg Albert Birkle is famous for his portraits from the 1920s in the style of the New Objectivity, which depict the people around him in an exaggerated manner, as genuine “originals”. He intensifies their physiognomy to an extreme degree and places them within ambiguous and often menacing scenes. The man portrayed as a hunter here was named Joseph Schmid and was also known as “Schreinerbeff” among friends and acquaintances. Birkle has developed the old man’s furrowed face in the fine manner of an old master, bringing out the subtlest details while simultaneously carrying his image out in the form of a bizarrely exaggerated character head that surely goes far beyond its real model. With his green loden jacket and raised rifle, he is clearly identified as a hunter: his concentrated gaze and slightly open mouth indicate his tense fixation on a quarry that remains invisible to the viewer. Birkle’s primary focus is on the face and hands of the portrait’s subject. In addition to their particularly detailed depiction, they are also somewhat spotlighted. The black background and its gnarled tree trunks place the hunter within a nighttime forest and bring a particular sense of drama to the image. An uncanny and unclear element is characteristic of Birkle’s pictures from this period, and it is also prominent here. Captivated by the depicted figure’s extreme physiognomy, viewers ask themselves whether this hunter here is just engaging in his craft or pursuing very different, dark motives.