Lot 2422 Dα

The present work can be linked to two other interior scenes “Kitchen in Alpach” and “Oetztal Farmhouse with Yellow Oven” created in 1889 (R. Stein and H. Koester: Alexander Koester 1864-1932. Life and Work, Recklinghausen 1988, nos. 3 and 4). It is probably one of the earliest surviving paintings by the artist, who later achieved fame as a painter of ducks. Just as the yellow oven in the Oetztal cottage served as a model for some of Koester's larger works (cf. Stein and Koester, op. cit., p. 10), the motif of the green oven with the bench also appears again in a somewhat later genre painting ("In the Studio”, Stein and Koester, op. cit., No. 18). The present painting is therefore an interesting example of the artist's early work.