Lot 668 
Raumbeispiel
668
Albert Birkle
Klettenfeve und Josevetter, 1927.
Oil on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 50,000 / $ 55,000 Sold:
€ 125,000 / $ 137,500 (incl. surcharge)
Klettenfeve und Josevetter. 1927.
Oil on cardboard.
Kraker 430. Lower left signed. Verso signed and titled. 100.5 x 71.5 cm (39.5 x 28.1 in).
We are grateful to Roswita and Viktor Pontzen, archive Albert Birkle, Salzburg, for the kind support in cataloging this lot. The work will be included into the forthcoming extended catalog raisonné.
PROVENANCE: Town pastor Heinrich Brobeil, Mengen (presumbaly obtained from the artist in the 1970s)
Private collection Southern Germany (inherited from aforementioned).
EXHIBITION: Sonderausstellung Albert Birkle, 1st Collective exhibition, Hinrichsen im Künstlerhaus Bellevuestraße, Berlin, 1927, exhibition list no. 19.
Collective exhibition Albert Birkle, Städtischen Museum Ulm, 1929, exhibition list no. 23.
Albert Birkle. Ölmalerei und Pastell. Kulturamt der Stadt Salzburg und Salzburger Museum Carolino Augsuteum, Museumspavillon am Mirabellgarten, 11 July - 7 September 1980, cat. no. 21 with color illu.
LITERATURE: Zeitschrift für Deutsche Kunst, 7th vol, issue 22, Essen 25 November 1927 as cover picture.
Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 44th vol , no. 1, issue 2, October 1929, p. 237.
Rudolf Pefferkorn. Albert Birkle, Leben und Werk. Hamburg 1983, pp. 54 and 50 with color illu. no. 33.
"Klettenfeve's name is Genoveva Klett; Vetter Joseph used to be a railroad worker, he is retired now and in Klettenfeve's caring hands. To Birkle they are both true representatives of Suebian countryfolk, loyal and lovely people, wildcrafting and with great knowledge of domestic plants. They live a life far from the modern days and not even the mock of their neighbors deters them. They dress in a tradional manner, meaning the way their duties require and the way it has always been fashionable. They have, as Birkle says in admiration, a proud and royal faith in themselves despite the strange new world they live in."
Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 1929, pp. 235-236
Oil on cardboard.
Kraker 430. Lower left signed. Verso signed and titled. 100.5 x 71.5 cm (39.5 x 28.1 in).
We are grateful to Roswita and Viktor Pontzen, archive Albert Birkle, Salzburg, for the kind support in cataloging this lot. The work will be included into the forthcoming extended catalog raisonné.
PROVENANCE: Town pastor Heinrich Brobeil, Mengen (presumbaly obtained from the artist in the 1970s)
Private collection Southern Germany (inherited from aforementioned).
EXHIBITION: Sonderausstellung Albert Birkle, 1st Collective exhibition, Hinrichsen im Künstlerhaus Bellevuestraße, Berlin, 1927, exhibition list no. 19.
Collective exhibition Albert Birkle, Städtischen Museum Ulm, 1929, exhibition list no. 23.
Albert Birkle. Ölmalerei und Pastell. Kulturamt der Stadt Salzburg und Salzburger Museum Carolino Augsuteum, Museumspavillon am Mirabellgarten, 11 July - 7 September 1980, cat. no. 21 with color illu.
LITERATURE: Zeitschrift für Deutsche Kunst, 7th vol, issue 22, Essen 25 November 1927 as cover picture.
Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 44th vol , no. 1, issue 2, October 1929, p. 237.
Rudolf Pefferkorn. Albert Birkle, Leben und Werk. Hamburg 1983, pp. 54 and 50 with color illu. no. 33.
"Klettenfeve's name is Genoveva Klett; Vetter Joseph used to be a railroad worker, he is retired now and in Klettenfeve's caring hands. To Birkle they are both true representatives of Suebian countryfolk, loyal and lovely people, wildcrafting and with great knowledge of domestic plants. They live a life far from the modern days and not even the mock of their neighbors deters them. They dress in a tradional manner, meaning the way their duties require and the way it has always been fashionable. They have, as Birkle says in admiration, a proud and royal faith in themselves despite the strange new world they live in."
Velhagen & Klasings Monatshefte, 1929, pp. 235-236
Birkle‘s close, almost dissecting look at his models is of a virtually shocking directness.
Yet, a certain affection for the portrayed people, their faces shaped by the marks that life has left behind, can be noticed. Birkle‘s meticulous painting manner, its critical Realism is hard to beat, tells the observer a lot of the depicted persons‘ composure. They embody present times in an almost naive presence. Old age‘s hidden beauty, also owed to a certain deprivation – symbolized in this composition by the goat– has never again been depicted in such a striking manner as it is the case with this work by Albert Birkle from the 1920s. While contemporaries like Otto Dix and George Grosz mocked and unmasked the German petty bourgeois in caricaturing manner, the opposite can be observed in Birkle‘s art. He put focus on inner human values, regardless of social position. Even though everyone is captive of his own surroundings, Birkle developed a very dignified image of man in the 1920s. [KD]
Yet, a certain affection for the portrayed people, their faces shaped by the marks that life has left behind, can be noticed. Birkle‘s meticulous painting manner, its critical Realism is hard to beat, tells the observer a lot of the depicted persons‘ composure. They embody present times in an almost naive presence. Old age‘s hidden beauty, also owed to a certain deprivation – symbolized in this composition by the goat– has never again been depicted in such a striking manner as it is the case with this work by Albert Birkle from the 1920s. While contemporaries like Otto Dix and George Grosz mocked and unmasked the German petty bourgeois in caricaturing manner, the opposite can be observed in Birkle‘s art. He put focus on inner human values, regardless of social position. Even though everyone is captive of his own surroundings, Birkle developed a very dignified image of man in the 1920s. [KD]
668
Albert Birkle
Klettenfeve und Josevetter, 1927.
Oil on cardboard
Estimate:
€ 50,000 / $ 55,000 Sold:
€ 125,000 / $ 137,500 (incl. surcharge)