Otto Mueller
Badeszene mit Jüngling und zwei Mädchen (1)
1914
Lithograph on copperplate paper, reworked with watercolour 32.6 x 43.3 cm (38.2 x 53.6 cm) Framed under glass. Signed in pencil right and inscribed '1.' left. One of approx. 5 proofs of which only two were known to Karsch (cf. also Karsch 50), probably the only proof that was coloured by hand. - Few professionally restored marginal defects.
Hand-coloured lithographs, which research also refers to as “hybrids”, represent a fascinating and distinctive aspect of Otto Mueller's work. Neither pure watercolours or pastels nor conventional prints, they are to be understood in terms of one-of-a-kind works and form an independent art form within the artist's oeuvre (cf. Dieter P. Wolf, Die Kunst Otto Muellers aus der Sicht eines Sammlers, in: Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern und Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau: Otto Mueller, Munich 2003, pp. 183ff.).
Mueller hand-coloured his lithographs for different reasons, but always with great restraint and with a subtly restricted palette. Only two impressions of the present sheet had been known until now, however, these were not reworked by the artist. Even more than both of these rare prints this version, with the delicate blue and ochre added to it in watercolour, represents a remarkable rarity.
Catalogue Raisonné
Karsch 49 (here the not coloured version)
Certificate
Florian Karsch, Berlin, had confirmed the coloration by the artist's hand to the previous offerer.
Provenance
Formerly private collection Berlin; Private collection, Rhineland
Literature
Hauswedell & Nolte, auction 317, Moderne Kunst, 5 June 1996, lot 591 with colour illus.; Ketter Kunst Munich, auction 227, Moderne Kunst Part I, 30. Nov. 1998, lot 16 with colour illus.