Impossible départ, ils restent sur le quai. 1940.
Watercolor and ink pen.
Signed lower right. Dated, titled "Le départ" and inscribed "No. 17" as well as "Camp de Milles (près d'Aix en Provence)" on the reverse. On blue-grayish laid paper. 30.3 x 32.8 cm (11.9 x 12.9 in), the full sheet. [CH].


• Despite his anti-fascist political views, the German artist, who was living in France at the time, was put in an internment camp when WW II (1939/40) broke out due to his origins.
• “Impossible départ” (Departure not possible): Wols addresses his failed attempts to leave occupied France in 1940.
• The drawings and watercolors from this period are characterized by mysterious hybrid forms of fish, mammals, and amorphous shapes, which Wols merged into figurative and abstract compositions.
• Consistent provenance: formerly owned by Gréty Wols, the artist's wife.
• Extensive exhibition history.
• Comparable works from this period can be found in significant museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Tate in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid.

PROVENANCE: Gréty Wols Collection, Paris (the artist's wife).
Art dealer Dr. Ewald Rathke Frankfurt am Main.
Private collection, Hesse (acquired from the above in 1968).
Family-owned ever since.

EXHIBITION: Probably Klipstein & Co., Bern 1954, cat. no. 3 (with the title “Le départ”).
Lucerne 1967, cat. no. 35,
Aus dem Traumbuch der Maler. Phantasie und Vision (Zeichnungen und Aquarelle), Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt a. Main, August 10 - September 29, 1968, cat. no. 99 (illustrated)
Wols 1913-1951. Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Nationalgalerie, Berlin, September 13 - November 5, 1973.
Wols. Fotografien und Bilder, Kunsthalle Nuremberg, September 26 - November 16, 1980.
Wols. Drawings and Watercolors, Goethe-Institut, London, March 16 - June 29, 1985; Graph. Kabinett Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Bremen, October 4 - November 9, 1985, cat. no. 4 (illustrated on p. 29).
Wols. Bilder, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Photographien, Druckgraphik, Kunsthaus Zürich, November 24, 1989 - February 11, 1990; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, March 31 - May 27, 1990, p. 115, cat. no. 33 (illustrated in color).

LITERATURE: Shigeo Chiba, L'oeuvre de Wols (PhD thesis), Paris 1974, p. 151.