Otto Mueller - Zigeunermadonna (Zigeunerin mit Kind vorm Wagenrad) - image-1

Lot 87 Dα

Otto Mueller - Zigeunermadonna (Zigeunerin mit Kind vorm Wagenrad)

Auction 1177 - overview Cologne
17.06.2021, 18:00 - Modern/Contemporary Art - Evening Sale
Estimate: 25.000 € - 35.000 €
Result: 32.500 € (incl. premium)

Otto Mueller

Zigeunermadonna (Zigeunerin mit Kind vorm Wagenrad)
1926-1927

Colour lithograph pulled from 3 colour stones, the background watercoloured in green by the artist, on brownish paper 70 x 50.3 cm (70.2 x 50.3 cm) Unsigned. Stamp "OM Nachlass Prof. Otto Müller Breslau" (Lugt 1829d) verso. One of 60 proofs. Sheet 9 of the portfolio "Zigeuner" comprising 9 colour lithographs, published by Otto Mueller in 1927 and printed by Lange, Akademie Breslau. - Strong print with fresh colours. Occasional very short marginal tears, the lower left corner with weak fold.

The elaborately produced “Zigeuner” portfolio represents a high point in German Expressionist printmaking. The “Zigeunermadonna”, the hand-coloured lithograph presented here, can be seen as its seminal and most important sheet and is compelling on account of its nuanced tonality.
The theme of the mother-and-child group has been interpreted in a Christological manner: thus, the wheel of the covered wagon in the background is understood in terms of a halo. Much like other members of the “Brücke” artists' group, Mueller's desire for and curiosity about the exotic drove him to the ethnic group of the Travellers, the “Zigeuner”, the Sinti and Romani. He occupied himself with motifs related to this theme in a large part of his work as an artist - in his paintings and drawings as well as his prints. On his own doorstep, so to speak, he found a partially archaic, simple way of life that was unfamiliar to him and, in its mystical exaltation, this motif could serve modern Europe as a source of longing.

Catalogue Raisonné

Karsch 168

Provenance

Collection Werner Haftmann, Berlin; Private collection, South Germany