Barthel Gilles - Der Kunsthändler Alois Faust mit Maske - image-1

Lot 387 D

Barthel Gilles - Der Kunsthändler Alois Faust mit Maske

Auction 1033 - overview Cologne
30.05.2014, 18:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 4.000 € - 5.000 €
Result: 6.100 € (incl. premium)

Barthel Gilles

Der Kunsthändler Alois Faust mit Maske
1949

Oil on canvas 50 x 41.3 cm Framed. Signed 'Gilles' lower right. - With two small, very short and unobtrusive tears in the canvas and retouchings along the margins.

“The art dealer Alois Faust from Cologne wore the best mask at the 'rag ball'. He showed up as a native of New Guinea, painted true to the original. The artist Gilles captured him in this painting.” (Neue Illustrierte Köln, 10 March 1949, the article affixed verso). What is referred to here is the legendary “rag ball” organised by the so-called Cologne 'Progressives' in the public house “em dekke Tommes”. This Cologne artists' carnival ball was considered legendary due to its Dionysian exuberance.

Catalogue Raisonné

Kuhlen 198

Provenance

The Alois Faust collection, Cologne; Private collection, Rhineland

Literature

Adam Oellers/Michael Euler-Schmidt, Barthel Gilldes 1891-1977, Leben und Werk, Recklinghausen 1987, p. 72, with colour illus. no. 50