Otto Dix
Haus und Baumstümpfe
Circa 1916
Black chalk on thin, smooth drawing paper 28.6 x 28.9 cm Framed under glass. Signed 'DIX' lower right. - Verso inscribed in pencil "Haus & Baumstümpfe" (House and Tree Stumps), probably by an unknown hand. - With minor marginal defects, otherwise in good condition.
This previously unpublished drawing was made in France in 1916 and has a similar motif to the chalk drawing "Waldlandschaft" (Lorenz WK 5.5.7) and the gouache "Aus dem Souchez-Tal" (Pfäffle G 1916/3, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstich-Kabinett). Dix was stationed near Souchez (north of Arras, Département Pas-de-Calais), and his expressionist depictions of the war from this time are some of the finest works in this artist's oeuvre.
Catalogue Raisonné
Not recorded by Lorenz
Certificate
We would like to thank Ulrike Lorenz, Mannheim, for confirmatory information; the work will be registered in the archive of the Dix Foundation under the supplement Lorenz WK 5.5.19.
Accompanied by an expertise by Rolf Karnahl, Berlin, dated 15 January 1970.
Provenance
Antiquariat Unter den Linden, Berlin (East), circa 1970; formerly private collection, Rhineland; in family possession since
Literature
Cf. Ulrike Lorenz, Otto Dix, Das Werkverzeichnis der Zeichnungen und Pastelle, Weimar 2003, vol. 1, p. 424, WK 5.5.7, "Waldlandschaft", with illus.; cf. also Suse Pfäffle, Otto Dix, Werkverzeichnis der Aquarelle und Gouachen, Stuttgart 1991, p. 263, G 1916/3 "Aus dem Souchez-Tal", with illus.