Max Ernst - Portrait Karl Henk - image-1

Lot 378 D

Max Ernst - Portrait Karl Henk

Auction 1099 - overview Cologne
01.12.2017, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 10.000 € - 15.000 €
Result: 9.920 € (incl. premium)

Max Ernst

Portrait Karl Henk
1910

Oil on canvas 31 x 23 cm Framed. Signed and dated 'Max Ernst 1910' in black upper right. - Traces of a sketch of linear, abstract spiral shapes verso. - Minor foxing on canvas verso.

The early portrait of Max Ernst's boyhood friend Karl Henk is done in contrasting graduated shades of green and pink with a neo-impressionist, thinned out colour palette and an unconstrained structure. The head, which is aligned frontally to the viewer in an austere manner and with an intense look, is most impressive. The sitter, realistically portrayed here, also appears in Max Ernst's caricatures for the school magazine titled "Aus unserm Leben an der Penne" in Brühl in the spring of 1910.

Catalogue Raisonné

Spies 42

Provenance

Formerly Sammlung Gaston Violand, Mulhouse; Private collection, France