Conrad Felixmüller
Selbstbildnis, malend
1934
Oil on board 27.6 x 21 cm Framed. Signed, dated and inscribed 'C. Felixmüller Berlin 34' (scratched) lower right. On the reverse inscribed 'Gutschein für eine Malerei gleicher Art für Mo' in pencil. - With numerous diagonal dry cracks and a few professional retouches.
Initially, Felixmüller planned the self-portrait as a gift for the Berlin textile manufacturer Robert Graetz. In spring 1934, Felixmüller and his family moved from Dresden to Berlin where they initially found accomodation in the Berlin villa of his friend, the collector Robert Graetz. In a letter dated 14 June 1934 the artist told the same that due to technically-related dry cracks, he intended to paint a new self-portrait (cf. Angelika Enderlein, Der Berliner Kunsthandel in der Weimarer Republik und im NS Staat, Zum Schicksal der Sammlung Graetz, Berlin 2006, p. 200, annot. 301). His friend and collector Mo von Haugk received the picture Christmas 1935 as a voucher for another painting.
Today, due to their diagonal and regular alignment, the dry cracks are not considered a flaw but rather an enhancement of the portrait's dynamic and tension.
Catalogue Raisonné
T. Felixmüller 598
Provenance
Gift from the artist to Mo von Haugk (Christmas 1935); Christie's London, Sale 5620, German and Austrian Art, 13 Oct. 1994, lot 145; Private possession, Hesse
Literature
Angelika Enderlein, Der Berliner Kunsthandel in der Weimarer Republik und im NS Staat, Zum Schicksal der Sammlung Graetz, Berlin 2006, p. 200