Lot 262 Dα

In his later coloured-crayon drawings of 1918/1919, Seehaus found a medium that provided him with new qualities of colour and expression that also differed from those of watercolours. The magnificent “Keltische Landschaft” also belongs to this group of important works conceived in the manner of paintings: here the possibilities of a rich and brightly resonant chromatic orchestration have been experienced as an obviously exhilarating revelation relished to the fullest. Beyond the luminous colours of red, green, blue, yellow and violet, the greasy wax crayons also permit many tonal gradations through fine parallel hatching and overdrawing. Seehaus employs these tints skilfully and subtlety, and they further underscore the rich contrasts and Cubist dynamism of the composition's formal framework. Those who have observed - in regard to his use of colour - how festive and cheerful a note seems to have entered Paul Adolf Seehaus's work at that time are surely correct. In the artist's own words, finally formulated through a musical analogy: “… my images are too minor in key and I would like to get to a major. C major - E-flat major, what glorious keys!” (cited in: K.F. Ertel, op. cit. 1968, p. 37).
In terms of content the dense composition of “Keltische Landschaft” takes up several elements from his earlier work; formally it is distinguished by the grand rhythmic vision of its overall layout and the individual elements' repetition and steep layering in depth. The semi-abstract interiors of the forms also result in what Dering has described as an underlying, wedge-shaped, horizontal motion: in this sheet it generates not only a centripetal force but also a remarkable sense of sculptural and spatial depth. Rock formations and cropped figures to the right and left form repoussoir elements inserted in front of the broad ocean bay. Angular, geometricised forms are contrasted with contoured, linear arcs of motion which seem to incorporate contemporary stylistic devices from Futurism. However, Seehaus's characteristic symbolism utilising the prominent insertion of signs remains conspicuous: here there are the cross and anchor in the composition, reminiscences from the epoch of German Romanticism.