3024 - MAX BURI

MAX BURI (Burgdorf 1868–1915 Interlaken) Women from Hasliberg Singing. 1905. Oil on canvas. Signed center right: MAX BURI. 46.5 × 73 cm. Provenance: - Probably a private collection, H. Baumgartner, acquired directly from the artist. - Auction at Auktionshaus Zofingen, Zofingen, December 5, 2009, lot 2779. - Private collection, Switzerland, acquired at the above auction. The painting depicts two young singers wearing traditional costumes from the Brienz region. Their full skirts, puff-sleeved blouses, brightly patterned shawls draped over their shoulders, and wide-brimmed straw hats lend the two women a vivid presence. Max Buri captures them in the act of singing, their mouths slightly open, wholly absorbed in their performance and making no attempt to meet the viewer’s gaze. In portraying these two women, the artist places traditional dress at the center of the composition, emphasizing its symbolic significance as an expression of regional identity. Yet this depiction of rural life also belongs to a period of profound social change that affected the Alpine regions around the turn of the twentieth century. Buri thus made everyday life and local traditions central subjects of his painting. The two young women also appear in a larger composition titled “Am Stammtisch,” now in the collection of the Stefanini Foundation.