Hans Purrmann - Langenargen mit Schloss Montfort - image-1

Lot 329 D

Hans Purrmann - Langenargen mit Schloss Montfort

Auction 1070 - overview Cologne
03.06.2016, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 60.000 € - 70.000 €
Result: 68.200 € (incl. premium)

Hans Purrmann

Langenargen mit Schloss Montfort

Oil on canvas 73.2 x 92.1 cm Framed. Signed 'H. Purrmann' lower right. - Fine original condition with vibrant colours. Minimal frame-related rubbing to upper edges and occasional, very inconspicious losses of colour.

The house that Mathilde and Hans Purrmann purchased in Langenargen in 1919 stood directly next to Lake Constance. The extraordinary location of this former fisherman's house motivated the artist to create a whole series of works that depict the lakeshore along a wide inlet, with Schloss Montfort standing on a peninsula. In these works Purrmann seems to have been only marginally concerned with this palace built in the style of the Moorish Revival; instead, he was far more interested in the charmingly staggered shoreline, with its gently sloping beach and the trees and houses standing behind it.
A very similar view with a depiction of Schloss Montfort is featured in the composition “Landschaft bei Langenargen” (cf. Lenz/Billeter 1932/01, dimensions 60 x 73 cm), which was also painted in 1932. However, our much larger painting displays a more thorough articulation in its details and a more nuanced palette - particularly in the foreground and middleground - in comparison to the smaller version, and it can thus be recognised as the more developed of the two paintings. Purrmann's works are distinguished by their finely dosed colour scheme, which is able to express the light of the landscape in a unique manner. The tender blue tones of the sky and water thus emphasise the open expansiveness of the lake, which Purrmann knows how to securely anchor compositionally between the bounding framework of the shoreline. The windblown branches of the tree utilised as a repoussoir are captivatingly arranged and, in their emphasis on the horizontal, they also point to the open water. The delicate palette and the charming contrast of the blue, green and turquoise tones with the warm, luminous umbra and ochre evocatively conjure up the atmosphere of a radiant autumn.

Catalogue Raisonné

Lenz/Billeter 1932/02 (here with erroneous dimensions "58 x 73 cm")

Certificate

With an expertise by Felix Billeter, Hans Purrmann archive, Munich, dated 10 October 2013 (Archive no. 1158).

Provenance

Formerly private collection, France; Private possession, France; Private possession, North Rhine-Westphalia