Hermann Max Pechstein - Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch - image-1
Hermann Max Pechstein - Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch - image-2
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Hermann Max Pechstein - Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch - image-1Hermann Max Pechstein - Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch - image-2Hermann Max Pechstein - Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch - image-3

Lot 267 D

Hermann Max Pechstein - Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch

Auction 1134 - overview Cologne
31.05.2019, 17:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 150.000 € - 200.000 €
Result: 173.600 € (incl. premium)

Hermann Max Pechstein

Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch
1921

Oil on canvas 100.6 x 78.1 cm Framed. Monogrammed and dated 'HMP 1921' (HMP joined) in black upper left and signed 'HMPechstein', titled 'Bildniß Frau Dr. Pl.' and dated twice '1921', resp. '21' in black verso. - Isolated minor retouches.

From the very beginning of his career, painter Max Pechstein was interested in portraiture as the artistic examination of humanity. Even in the earliest years of his work as an artist he created self-portraits and depicted friends and acquaintances.
The portrait became his central form of expression at the very latest from 1917 onwards, after Pechstein was discharged from military service: Portraits formed a special work group of central relevance to the artist's oeuvre, to which not only Bernard S. Myers attests a quite exceptional artistic quality. The latter described Pechstein's paintings created between 1917 and 1921 as “monumental in their conception of form, expressive in their capture of the sitter's character and mood in the inward-turning sense of the school generally, these half-length studies are blocked in with bold, assured strokes and conscious deformations that intensify their meaning. In some ways these portraits, especially the studies of himself, are among the finest things that Pechstein did: very personal in style, they differ considerably from other Expressionist portraits.” (cf. Bernard S. Myers, Expressionism. A Generation in Revolt, London, 1963, p. 145).
Our portrait of Mica Plietzsch provides an impressive testament to Pechstein's keen eye and his prowess in translating his precise observations into painting in nuanced ways. The artist aimed to capture both his sitter's personality and the atmosphere in the room through gestures, facial play and attributes like the scrunched-up handkerchief in her hands, as well as through his subject's slightly other-worldly gaze, which extends beyond the frame. He appealingly contrasted his subtly psychological depiction with clear contours, masterful thick brush marks and a vivid colour scheme featuring red, green and violet.
Max Pechstein and art historian Dr. Eduard Plietzsch, who was 5 years his junior, were life-long friends and regularly exchanged letters. Mica Plietzsch, like her husband Eduard, was a close friend of Pechstein's (see comparative illus.).
It is presumably due to the direct personal relationship between painter and sitter that our representative portrait transports an immediate closeness able to further heighten the extraordinary quality of this important and striking painting in terms of the unexpected impact it has on the viewer.

Catalogue Raisonné

Soika 1921/61

Provenance

Mica Plietzsch, Cologne; Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner KG, Bremen (approx. 1974, label verso on decorative frame); in private possession since, Rhineland

Literature

Graphisches Kabinett Kunsthandel Wolfgang Werner, Deutsche Kunst 1900 - 1940, Bremen 1974, n. cat. no., n. p. with full-page colour illus. ("Das blaue Kleid (Bildnis M. P.)")

Exhibitions

Selm 1989 (Schloß Cappenberg), Max Pechstein, p. 18 with colour illus.