Sale: 424 / Modern Art, June 11./13. 2015 in Munich Lot 221

 

221
Hermann Max Pechstein
Bildnis Charlotte Cuhrt, 1910.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 400,000 / $ 440,000
Sold:
€ 817,000 / $ 898,700

(incl. surcharge)
Bildnis Charlotte Cuhrt. 1910.
Oil on canvas.
Soika 1910/62. Signed and dated lower left. 175 x 85 cm (68.8 x 33.4 in).
In original frame. [KD/ATh].
Pechstein's lucent paintings from the days of the "Brücke", today largely in possession of public collections, are the artist's most sought-after works on the international auction market.

PROVENANCE: Max Cuhrt, Berlin (commissioned in 1910 and in family possession until 2008).
Private collection (since 2008).

EXHIBITION: Neue Sezession, III. exhibition Kunstsalon Maximilian Macht, Berlin, 18 February - mid April, 1911, no. 33 (portrait L. C.).
Belvedere, Vienna, 2009-2014 (loan from private ownership).

LITERATURE: Johannes Sievers, Die Neue Sezession in Berlin, in: Der Cicerone, year 3, 1911, issue 5, p. 178.
Cora Eggers-Wrublick, Das Portrait in der Malerei Max Pechsteins. Studien zum Portrait im Expressionismus, Essen 2004, no. 26, p. 289.
Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. Das Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde, vol. 1: 1905-1918, München 2011, p. 104, 151, 275.

Pechstein presented this portrait "Bildnis Charlotte Cuhrt"at the widely noticed third exhibition of the 'Neue Secession' in 1911. A meaningful decision: It is proof of how much he saw all his modernity realized in this picture. The 'Neue Secession' was a very progressive association that campaigned against the time-honored "Berlin Secession". Accordingly, works of a highly avant-gardist potential were shown. "The best young artists, the promising bearers of a developable future have congregated to form a new Secession", wrote the art historian Max Raphael in the preface of the auction catalog. His following words precisely describe the "Bildnis Charlotte Cuhrt": "Every object is only medium of a color[..] and the work does not aim to deliver account of the impression of nature but the expression of sensation. The [..] 'imitation' disappears in favor of a 'new creation'." (Quote after 'Liebermanns Gegner. Die Neue Secession in Berlin und der Expressionismus', exhibition Berlin 2011, Cologne 2011, p. 204).



221
Hermann Max Pechstein
Bildnis Charlotte Cuhrt, 1910.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 400,000 / $ 440,000
Sold:
€ 817,000 / $ 898,700

(incl. surcharge)