Lot 444 D

Max Peiffer Watenphul created the painting “Gasometer” at the beginning of the time he spent as a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar (1919-1926). However, the motif could have been painted from his memories of the familiar industrial landscape of the Ruhr district. He had gone to school in Hattingen, where he also began his postgraduate legal internship, and he completed his military training in Mülheim an der Ruhr.
The nocturnal street scene depicted here, which features the pitch-black gasometer of the title, soaring smokestacks, modest red and brown houses and a gas lantern with its pale rose-coloured light, exudes a strangely mysterious and poetic atmosphere. Although primarily done in grey tones, the painting conveys no sense of the ominous or sinister; on the contrary, it radiates warmth and security. Not least on account of the deserted composition constructed using one-point perspective, the work stirs memories of Giorgio de Chirico's metaphysical painting.
The young Peiffer Watenphul quickly drew the attention of art dealer and gallerist Alfred Flechtheim, who would already sign a contract with him in 1920, providing him with financial independence. The painting offered here was probably included in his first exhibition at Flechtheim's gallery in Düsseldorf in 1921. “Gasometer” later became the property of the illustrious Elberfeld jeweller and collector Karl Krall (see also Otto Dix's “Bildnis des Juweliers Karl Krall”, from 1923, Von der Heydt-Museum, Wuppertal; Löffler 1923/9), and it has been in his family ever since.