Modern Art - Amazing Spring Offers

Lempertz offers a noteworthy abundance of highly important classical modernist works, led by two excellent works by Kurt Schwitters (€ 400/600,000 and € 300/350,000) as well as a monumental painting by Max Liebermann for € 600/800,000.

Further important pieces include a colour chalk drawing by Picasso (€ 180/220,000), a painting by Alexej Jawlensky from 1916 estimated at € 300/350.000, a watercolour by Ernest Biéler (€ 150/200,000), a canvas by Lovis Corinth (€ 150/200,000) and an early painting by Ernst Wilhelm Nay (€ 160/180,000). Further six-figure pictures are offered from Mela Muter (€ 100/150,000), Otto Modersohn (€ 100/120,000), Willi Baumeister (€ 100/120,000), Gottardo Segantini (€ 80/120,000), and a canvas by Hans Purrmann (€ 80/100,000) as well as a bronze by Giacomo Manzù (€ 80/120,000).

Important works by the painter, graphic artist, sculptor, spatial artist and poet Kurt Schwitters are only rarely found on the art market. As Schwitters belongs to the most inspirational artists of post First World War modern art, The “Gustav Finzlerbild”, a 73.7 x 61 cm oil and wood on wood collage from 1926/36 has a striking provenance. The collage with an impressive exhibition history – Basel, New York as well as Cologne – has also been described many times in literature (lot 285, € 400/600,000).

“Counterfoil”, the second work offered for sale by Kurt Schwitters, was made in 1942/45. The 77.5 x 59 cm oil, paper and fabric collage is often mentioned in the literature, and has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1985/86, the Tate Gallery in London, and in the Sprengel Museum in Hanover to name a few (lot 286, € 300/500,000).

The prominent, 128 x 178 cm work “Judengasse in Amsterdam” by Max Liebermann from 1909 has been valued at € 600/800,000. In Liebermann's rich oeuvre, only a small number of such monumental paintings are found. With only a few exceptions, most of these major works are now located in renowned important national and international museum collections (lot 261).

Pablo Picasso is represented by “Deux Pigeons”, a coloured chalk drawing from 1946 (lot 292, € 180/220,000). The floral still life is very characteristic of Lovis Corinth's intense, overflowing painting – particularly in his late work: a classic „Memento Mori“. The painting offered here, “Blumen in Vase” from 1923 has an estimate of € 150/200,000 (lot 262). The work of the Swiss artist Ernest Biéler reflects the most important artistic currents of his time: the ideas of Realism, Impressionism and Art Nouveau. “Le Marguillier (L'Homme à la tabatière)” from 1907 is in very good condition, and has an estimate of € 150/200,000 (lot 255).

Ernst Wilhelm Nay's paintings of mythical animals form the first tangible thematic block in his work, following a Surrealist-influenced period of early works with pictures of animal symbols. Nay presents subjects dealing with the encounter between man and animal, as here with “Elch and Elchkuh” from 1935 (lot 287, € 160/180,000). Mela Muter's “Spanischer Tanz (Danse espagnole)” from 1913 is estimated at € 100/150,000 (lot 253). With the painting “Abend im Moordorf” (1898), Otto Modersohn captures surroundings of the moorlands of Worpswede near Bremen. At 109 x 214 cm, the unusually large canvas is valued at € 100/120,000 (lot 250). The 1942 painting “Maler und Modell” by Willi Baumeister has the same estimate (lot 289). The Swiss artist Gottardo Segantini received important impulses from his father and his contemporary Ferdinand Hodler. “Lagrev in autunno”, from 1921, has an estimate of € 80/120,000 (lot 254). Giacomo Manzù’s 1956/57 bronze “Dancer” has been valued at € 80/100,000 (lot 294). Hans Purrmann's “Küstenlandschaft bei Lacco Ameno, Ischia” from 1956 has the same estimate (lot 276).

Georg Schrimpf's most beautiful and artistically interesting paintings undoubtedly include the museum-like window and balcony pictures, to which the present composition “Am Morgen” also belongs (lot 271, € 60/80,000). André Lanskoy's “Les Noirs gagnet” from 1958 is valued at € 50/70,000 (lot 293), whilst Victor Servrankx' “Opus 4” has an estimate of € 40/60,000 (lot 284), as do Georg Muche's ten watercolours from the early series “Leuchtperpendikel” from 1916 (lot 280). HAP Grieshaber is represented by a particularly unusual work: six large-format original woodcuts from “Der Rhein” with an unusual total size of 200 x 117 cm (lot 295, € 30/40,000).

The offer is completed with paper works from, amongst others, the German Expressionists including a theatrical gouache by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner form 1912/1913 (€ 30/40,000), an intensely coloured landscape watercolour by Erich Heckel (€ 20/30,000) as well as an atmospheric still life by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (€ 35/40,000 and € 25/35,000).

Preview

Berlin: 14 and 15 May (Poststraße 22, 10178 Berlin)

Cologne: 25 to 30th May (Neumarkt 3, 50667 Cologne)

Auction

Cologne: 31 May, 5 pm (Neumarkt 3, 50667 Cologne)