Lot 442 Nα

This large-format landscape painting possibly depicts the shores of the Müggelsee in south-eastern Berlin. It includes two young girls at a draw well and a group of cackling geese in the flowering meadow of the foreground. The painting is a charming and also representative example of the “naturalistic” style in the early work of this artist, who was a close friend of Gerhardt Hauptmann. In 1883 Leistikow moved from his native town of Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz, Poland) to Berlin, which was developing into a vibrant metropolis at that time. Nonetheless, the artist preferred to paint farm scenes and landscapes - perhaps reminiscing about his homeland. Above all, the landscapes featuring lakes in and around Berlin provided him with abundant motifs. Not much later, as one of the best-known Berlin Secessionists, Leistikow developed individual atmospheric landscapes in a style entirely his own.
The present painting radiates a calm, rural peacefulness: a summery idyll along the lake. The wall extending into the centre of the painting, the draw well and the neatly arranged vegetation along the shore draw our gaze into the distance, towards the softly lit lake and a sailing boat. Leistikow's Berlin landscape paintings met with an extremely positive resonance even during his own lifetime.