Arena mit Stierkämpfer und sterbendem Stier (Tauromachie III). Um 1930.
Oil on canvas.
Chabert 245. Signed in lower right. 100 x 81 cm (39.3 x 31.8 in).

• Exceptional composition from the mature years in Paris.
• Kolle died a year after this painting was made at the age of 31 in Chantilly near Paris, leaving behind a high-quality pictorial oeuvre.
• Featured in the grand Kolle exhibition at the Lenbachhaus in Munich (1994/95).
• Kolle's figure pictures with toreros, soldiers and sailors are characterized by a smooth transition to the self-portrait.
• A self-portrait with red pochette from around the same time is in the collection of the Städel Museums, Frankfurt a. M.

PROVENANCE: Prof. Dr. Kurt Kolle, Starnberg.
Dr. Peter Kolle, Hanover.
Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf (with fragmentarily preserved label on the stretcher).
Private collection Northern Germany (until 2017).

EXHIBITION: Helmut Kolle 1899-1931, Lenbachhaus Munich December 17, 1994 - February 5, 1995, cat. no. 53 (with illu.).
Helmut Kolle, Galerie Orangerie-Reinz, Cologne, April 25 - June 27, 1998.
Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf, November 1998-January 1999, p. 37 (with illu.).
Helmut Kolle: Ein Deutscher in Paris, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Museum Gunzenhauser, November 7, 2010 - May 1, 2011 / Ernst Barlach Haus, Hamburg, May 22 - September 25, 2011, cat. no. 64 (with illu.).
Helmut Kolle, Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf, September 14 - November 2, 2016, no p. (with illu.).

"I had to think back to all of that in distress a few months later after Kolle's death, when I heard Picasso praise his life and work and the tremendous vitality and beauty of these pictures."
Wilhelm Uhde, quote from: Hardwig Garnerus, Helmut Kolle 1899-1931, Munich 1995.