A Berlin KPM porcelain panel with St. Nepomuk's Bridge
Model no. 9124. Large, finely painted panel with a moulded rim. Signed 'F. Türcke' below. Blue sceptre mark with imperial orb, 300/44 and AK in purple, year letter U. D 41.3 cm.
1920, composition designed by Franz Türcke in February 1909.
This panel shows a nocturnal view of a stone bridge with the figure of St Nepomuk from Grüssau in Lower Silesia (today Krzeszów in Poland). Türcke created the model for this design on earlier trips to Silesia in 1905-1907. The motif, which must have left a deep impression on him, can be found in at least three of his other works, including an oil painting by entitled "Frühlingsnacht" (Spring Night), which shows a somewhat larger section of the bridge from the opposite side of the river and was exhibited at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in 1910.
Franz Türcke was born in Dresden in 1877 but moved to Berlin in 1884 when his father was appointed as a porcelain painter at the Royal Berlin manufactory. The son began his training at the manufactory at the age of 14. He was released from his apprenticeship in 1900 and began studying painting at the academy. He enrolled in the classes of Eugen Bracht and Friedrich Kallmorgen and became a master pupil of Albert Hertel. He was awarded the academy's Blechen Prize for his landscape painting in 1903. Back at KPM, he was allowed to realise his own designs as of 1909. Türcke was employed by KPM until 1927, after which he became a freelance painter.
Literature
For Türcke see Volk, Franz Türcke (1877 - 1957) als Porzellanmaler an der Berliner Manufaktur, in: Keramos 48/1970, p. 66.
See also von Treskow, Die Jugendstil-Porzellane der KPM. Bestandskatalog der Königlichen Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin 1896 - 1914, Munich 1971, pp. 264 and 316.
See also Gronert, Das Porzellan der KPM Berlin 1918 - 1988, vol. III: Künstlerbiografien, Berlin 2020, p. 430 ff.
A further example from the Gronert Collection, offered in Lempertz Berlin auction 1084 on 3rd May 2017, lot 201.