Wilhelm Morgner
Allee
1910
Oil on card 61 x 69.5 cm Framed. Numbered, dated, inscribed, and monogrammed with black brush "RNo 61 / 57 (crossed out) / 1910 /Morgner. TpR" by the executor Georg Tappert verso and inscribed "Sammlung August Stein" in red crayon at the bottom. Remnants of a label from Galerie Flechtheim. - Minor retouches and partial age-related craqueleur.
“Now that I have noticed that paint is colourful, I much prefer it to just black and white. I can't see why everything is supposed to be made grey and brown. In the same way, the pencil has never yet created a line in order to paint, but in order to make lines. I now want to draw with my pencil and paint with colour.” (Wilhelm Morgner to Georg Tappert, 15 May 1911. Cited in Friedrich W. Heckmanns, Zur Farbe in Morgners Bildern, in: exhib. cat. Wilhelm Morgner, Münster 1967, Landesmuseum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, p. 37).
Morgner's declared intention of painting with colour was already developing during his first stays at Worpswede, where he began to depict atmospheric landscapes in the landscape's earthy tonalities. Much like the “Bäume am Wasser” (1909) of the Wilhelm-Morgner-Haus Soest, the present painting stands at the beginning of Morgner's impressive exploration of colour as an artistic means.
By way of an initially naturalistic palette, the artist arrived at a luminously expressive use of colour within a very brief period. He quickly began using a Divisionist technique to break up the individual hues and to apply them to the canvas alongside one another in short, impasto brushstrokes. Although this approach implies a specific familiarity with Neo-Impressionism's foundations in colour theory, Morgner had only a limited interest in the principles of optics and the theory of colour perception; instead, his aim was primarily the intensification of the colours' intrinsic value. Thus, in his flickering and mesmerizing compositions sometimes reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh's work, nature becomes the expressive vehicle of a painting process defined by its great intensity.
Certificate
We would like to thank Thomas Drebusch, Soest, for additional information.
Provenance
Estate Wilhelm Morgner; Collection August Stein, Hamburg; Private possession, Hesse; Private collection, North Rhine-Westphalia (since 2001)