Lot 208 Dα

This bird's-eye-view of a harbour scene, dated 1913, indicates that Seehaus was dealing with the Cubist and Futurist styles of the time. The harbour depicted here cannot be identified as belonging to a certain topography and appears somewhat construed. Especially evident is the graduation of the various sections, which are adjoined one next to the other in an additive manner that, at first glance, appears complicated and congested. The motifs in the foreground, formed mainly of large cubes and triangles, are easily recognizable; the prismatically devided sky, with its similar handling of colour, corresponds formally to the foreground of the picture. Together the foreground and the background forge a well thought-out compositional entity made up of a multitude of separate, abstracted parts.
Especially striking are the destabilising, overlapping diagonals, emphasised repeatedly by the contrasting play of light and shadow, by areas of brightness and darkness. Apparent here is not only a conscious opposition of the various elements in relation to one another, but also in many cases the doubling of motifs arranged parallel to one another, such as the hanger for the life boat, the industrial chimneys or the two sailing boats. In this very dynamic picture, Seehaus limited himself to a palette of the three primary colours red, yellow and blue, which he varied in tone through the addition of ochre. He deliberately abstained from the use of green, and the depiction of nature as well.