Hans Purrmann - Küstenlandschaft bei Lacco Ameno, Ischia - image-1

Lot 276 D

Hans Purrmann - Küstenlandschaft bei Lacco Ameno, Ischia

Auction 1134 - overview Cologne
31.05.2019, 17:00 - Modern Art
Estimate: 80.000 € - 100.000 €
Result: 142.600 € (incl. premium)

Hans Purrmann

Küstenlandschaft bei Lacco Ameno, Ischia
1956

Oil on canvas 51 x 60 cm Framed. Signed 'H. Purrmann' in brown lower right. - Partially with minor craquelure in the sky area.

Over the years, Hans Purrmann repeatedly stayed on Ischia, an Italian island neighbouring Capri. There he met with artist friends, such as Werner Gilles, Eduard Bargheer and Max Peiffer Watenphul, or also collectors like Richard Parrisius. He had already travelled to the island in 1924: then and in the 1950s, the artist visited this well-known and attractive place with its extraordinary natural scenery, and he remained there for extended stays, enjoying the view of Monte Epomeo, the palace and the colourful houses in the harbour of Porto d'Ischia. Purrmann was also captivated by the olive trees outside the town of Lacco Ameno, in the north-western part of the island, and repeatedly became fascinated with the views of that stretch of coast. The distinctive rock which surges up out of the sea like a landmark at the foot of the fishing village also named St Angelo is painted from an interesting point of view, namely, from the high ground standing opposite it.
The brush has been used to spread the dominant blue and the contrasting green and warm, reddish brown directly on the canvas - on top of thin, watercolour-like, transparent lines. Only a few standard natural props have been left as indispensable: tonal accents convey the Mediterranean atmosphere and simultaneously emphasise the layering of the space, in which water and earth meet and within which Purrmann has united the irrational elements of nature on a single picture plane. The palette seems brash, as though intoxicated with colour, and calls to mind the artist's many stays in the South, in Collioure, in Ajaccio and along the Capo di Sorrento - more than 40 years would pass before his visit to the area surrounding Lacco Ameno. Purrmann, 76 years old by that time, mastered the palette of the Fauves like no other and, in all those years, he had developed their illusionistic use of colour into an intense sensuality.

Certificate

Not recorded by Lenz/Billeter
With an expertise from Felix Billeter, Hans Purrmann-Archiv, Munich, dated 14 June 2010

Provenance

Private possession, Bavaria (acquired directly from the artist); Private possession, Baden-Württemberg; Hans Purrmann Haus, Speyer (permanent loan 2010 - Feb. 2019)

Exhibitions

Speyer 2010 - Feb. 2019 (Hans Purrmann Haus), permanent exhibition Hans Purrmann und Mathilde Vollmoeller-Purrmann