Lot 63 D

In 1917 the Berlin art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt commissioned Max Pechstein to create designs for a number of stained-glass windows and glass mosaics in the context of the stately redecoration of Gurlitt’s house in Potsdamer Straße. The glass-mosaic and stained-glass company Puhl & Wagner, located in the Neukölln district of Berlin, was entrusted with the works’ realisation – a remarkable commission in the midst of the First World War. For the two walls of the barrel-vaulted corridor between two large exhibition rooms, Pechstein designed a pair of monumental glass mosaics featuring biblical motifs: “Vertreibung aus dem Paradies” and “Anbetung der Könige”. The Gurlitt house was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War; however, in addition to Pechstein’s two original cartoons with his designs – one of which, the “Vertreibung aus dem Paradies” is now to be found at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin (see comparative ill.) – the present trial piece, which depicts the central scene of the Expulsion of Adam and Eve, has also been preserved.