Paul Adolf Seehaus
Herbstfeuer
1917
Mixed media (watercolour and opaque colour, chalk, India ink) on lightly textured watercolour laid paper 12.9/13.1 x 21.7 cm Signed and dated 'Seehaus 17' in black India ink sideways in the depiction lower right. Titled and inscribed "4 Herbstfeuer" in black pencil verso. - In fine condition.
Light smoke seems to be coming from the two fireplaces diffusing into the landscape, forming a brighter contrast to the muted colours in blue, green, and brown red that characterise the clods in front of the mountains. The abstract interpretation of the small pictorial elements may formally be reminiscent of Paul Klee's graphic abbreviations as the planar rhythm can be compared to the watercolour structures of his friend August Macke. Seehaus himself commented: “I have been producing small watercolours for some time now: visionary landscapes, half Russian, half Chinese, hieroglyphs that are almost indecipherable.” (cited after: Dering, op. cit., p. 112)
Catalogue Raisonné
Dering A 51; Rave II, 30
Provenance
Artist's estate; formerly G. Simsa-Drascher, Barmen; Private possession
Literature
Peter Dering, Paul Adolf Seehaus. Leben und Werk, Bonn 2004, p. 109 with illus.
Exhibitions
Munich 1918 (Münchner Neue Sezession), IV. Ausstellung, cat. no. 181; Berlin 1926 (Kronprinzenpalais), Gedenk-Ausstellung Paul Adolf Seehaus (?)