229 - Max Peiffer Watenphul

Max Peiffer Watenphul Venedig, Segelboote auf der Lagune 1951 Oil on canvas. 57.5 x 78.5 cm. Framed. Monogrammed and dated 'M.P.W 51.' in black upper left. - Original canvas irregularly trimmed, margins relined, otherwise in age-appropriate good condition. Pasqualucci G 438 Provenance Kulturkreis der deutschen Wirtschaft; loan to Kunstmuseum Bochum (Städtische Kunstsammlungen - Heimatmuseum), inv. no. 785 Exhibitions Wuppertal 1952 (Städtisches Museum), Heinz Battke, Florenz und Max Peiffer Watenphul, Venedig; Essen 1952 (Museum Folkwang), Max Peiffer Watenphul; Munich 1953 (Haus der Kunst), Große Kunstausstellung, cat. no. 176 Literature Museum Bochum, Kunstsammlung 1960-1970, Bochum 1970, p. 152 The third in a series of nine paintings produced in 1951, which were devoted almost exclusively to the sailing boats in the lagoon (see also Pasqualucci G 436 and 437, and 439 to 444). In his essay "Ein neues Venedig" (Der Mittag, Düsseldorf, 31 January 1952), Peiffer Watenphul writes about the difficulty of painting Venice in the middle of the last century – and about his own approach: "Then, in September, this cheerful, bustling life comes to an end in one fell swoop, like a ghostly apparition. ... The autumn rains set in and an icy bora whips the torrents of rain against the marble façades [...]. ... I have tried to capture something of this atmosphere and the underlying essence of Venice in my paintings. A Venice beneath the oppressive Scirocco sky, the white haze over the lagoon with the few colours of the rust-red and lemon-coloured sails. For me, this is the true, real Venice” (quoted from Pasqualucci, p. 57)