Bildnis einer Dame im Kimono. 1929.
Watercolor over pencil.
Signed and dated lower right. On firm paper. 49,2 x 38,6 cm (19,3 x 15,1 in), the full sheet.
The depicted person is the actress Linda David, née Nolden. (Rear of mount inscribed with information on her, by a hand other than that of the artist).

PROVENANCE: Private collection North-Rhine Westphalia.

Arthur Kaufmann, one of the main representatives of Rhenish Expressionism and New Objectivity, was born in Mühlheim on the Ruhr on 7 July, 1888. After he had studied at the Düsseldorf Academy from 1904 to 1906 the young artist went abroad for several longer sojourns to, among others, Italy, England and France. In 1906 and 1913 Kaufmann was student of the French Cubist artist Henri Le Fauconnier at the Académie Julian in Paris. From 1919 to 1933 Kaufmann lived in Düsseldorf, where he was, together with the writer Herbert Eulenberg and the visual artist Adolf Uzarski, one of the founding fathers of the artist group "Das Junge Rheinland" (The Young Rhineland). Together with Otto Dix he was part of the closer circle of artists around the gallery owner Johanna Ey. During these days, which were extremely proliferous, Kaufmann made a great number of works, among them the large oil painting "Zeitgenossen" (Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf), a group portrait of the most important members of the "Junges Rheinland". In 1929 Arthur Kaufmann founded the Municipal School for Decorative Art in Düsseldorf, and was its director. This watercolor "Bildnis einer Dame im Kimono" (Portrait of a Lady in Kimono) was made the same year. With its mellow coloring it delivers proof of his sharp power of observation. Because of his Jewish background Kaufmann was forced into emigration by the National Socialists in 1933 and he had to leave his institution behind. So he first went to Holland and in 1936 he finally went to the U.S.A. In numerous exhibitions in New York between 1947 and 1952 he earned fame and became a celebrated portray painter. With portraits of, among others Albert Einstein and George Gershwin, he made impressive paintings of famous Jewish personalities. It was not before 1953 that Kaufmann returned to Germany by invitation of the city of Düsseldorf. The same year the Kunstgalerie Düsseldorf showed an exhibition of his portraits, still lives and landscapes. Arthur Kaufmann died in Nova Friburgo, Brazil, on a visit to his daughter in 1971. [KH].