Die Angst. Um 1950.
Oil on cardboard.
With estate stamp (not in Lugt) and registration number "I-115" on verso. 18,3 x 10,5 cm (7,2 x 4,1 in).
Particularly haunting scene. especially due to the small format, by the renowned German expressionist.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Rodheim, Rosbach/Rodheim.
Private collection Northern Germany.

EXHIBITION: Ludwig Meidner 1884-1966. Paintings - Watercolors - Drawings - Prints. Kunstgalerie Rodheim, Rosbach/Rodheim, April 1984, cat. no. 10 (with illu.).

Defamed as "degenerate" in 1933 and persecuted as a Jew, Ludwig Meidner emigrated to England and did not return to Germany before 1953. In his last and very proliferous period of creation he developed his realist style that he had attained in the 1920s. In terms of topic and execution, this work can be ascribed to this period: In small format Ludwig Meidner illustrated a common emotion in those days, as he experienced fear of persecution, fear in his exile and in face of the everyday struggle for survival. Ludwig Meidner illustrated the fear with great mastery by showing a man fleeing fast as the wind. The painter hinted at the approaching persecutors only by means of the legs in the upper margin. The small format contributes to the atmosphere of anxiety, increasing the feeling of despair and hopelessness. [KP].