To Hjalmar Gabrielson [3]. Merzzeichnung. 1947.
Collage, oil and gouache.
Orchard/Schultz 3644. Signed and inscribed "To Hjalmar Gabrielson" lower right. On creme paper. 24,7 x 20,2 cm (9,7 x 7,9 in), the full sheet.

The work is regsitered under the œuvre no. 1947/1733 in the archive of Erst Schwitters.

PROVENANCE: Hjalmar Gabrielson, Gothenburg, 1947-1949.
Auction at Sotheby's New York, 11/1990 cat. no. 176 (with illu. in colors).
Ketterer Kunst Munich, auction 172, 26 May, 1992, cat. no. 1146 (with illu. in colors).
Private collection.

EXHIBITION: Improvvisatione Prima. Galleria d'Arte, Trento, no date (with label on frame and on frame covering).

The Swedish collector Hjalmar Gabrielson from Gothenburg, to whom the work is dedicated, had also bought the "Kirschbild" by Kurt Schwitters in 1922, a collage, made in 1921 and with a children’s book illustration with cherries inscribed in German and French mounted in center. This work, in which the collage just plays a minor role, is based on a conception of loose color forms that follow a remarkable harmony. The aspect of coincidence, one of the most charming feature of Schwitters collages, is almost excluded. The pictorial component hints at a turn to decoration, a feature latently visible in earlier collages. [KD].