Lot 3254 - A195 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 04. December 2020, 04.00 PM
OTTO DIX
(Untermhaus 1891–1969 Singen)
Blühende Bäume im Dorf (Blooming trees in the village). 1954.
Oil on canvas.
Signed and dated lower right: 5 DIX 4.
65 × 81 cm.
We would like to thank Rainer Pfefferkorn for confirming the authenticity of the work, October 2020. It will be included in the catalogue raisonné under number L 1954/10.
Provenance:
Swiss private collection, owned by the same family for 40 years.
From the mid-1930s onwards, Otto Dix lived in Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance, the landscape of which became the main subject of his painting. However, it was the end of the Second World War and the return from captivity that produced the stylistic change in the artist's work.
"The altered "technique" (that word is completely incorrect, it is actually a new way of seeing that I have adopted) produces many and curious results. In any case, concluded is: 1. The painting has become more spontaneous, the awful attention that one always must have with constant glazes is gone 2. Everything becomes rougher, thank goodness, I have painted too much with a pointed brush the last 20 years and now I return to the time of my first war picture, thus a kind of unleashing occurs. 3. The formal-spatial gives way to the colour-spatial, and the colours begin to form "sounds". 4. At my discretion I throw all the ideal compositions, the golden ratio and all this Renaissance stuff overboard and paint "unleashed". And as I write this, I realise that all this cannot be explained, the works have more form despite the unleashing.” (Otto Dix to his student Ernst Bursche, 16 September 1944).
The late work of Otto Dix directly links to his early expressionist work around the time of the First World War. In contrast, however, his later work concentrates on the landscape around him, which is transferred to the canvas in a wild and free style. The present work "Blooming trees in the village" from 1954 beautifully expresses the joy of painting and the newfound spontaneity that Dix employed in his later work. The work offered here is a new discovery in the artist's catalogue raisonné and stands out through its rough and expressive lines.
Provenance:
Swiss private collection, owned by the same family for 40 years.
From the mid-1930s onwards, Otto Dix lived in Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance, the landscape of which became the main subject of his painting. However, it was the end of the Second World War and the return from captivity that produced the stylistic change in the artist's work.
"The altered "technique" (that word is completely incorrect, it is actually a new way of seeing that I have adopted) produces many and curious results. In any case, concluded is: 1. The painting has become more spontaneous, the awful attention that one always must have with constant glazes is gone 2. Everything becomes rougher, thank goodness, I have painted too much with a pointed brush the last 20 years and now I return to the time of my first war picture, thus a kind of unleashing occurs. 3. The formal-spatial gives way to the colour-spatial, and the colours begin to form "sounds". 4. At my discretion I throw all the ideal compositions, the golden ratio and all this Renaissance stuff overboard and paint "unleashed". And as I write this, I realise that all this cannot be explained, the works have more form despite the unleashing.” (Otto Dix to his student Ernst Bursche, 16 September 1944).
The late work of Otto Dix directly links to his early expressionist work around the time of the First World War. In contrast, however, his later work concentrates on the landscape around him, which is transferred to the canvas in a wild and free style. The present work "Blooming trees in the village" from 1954 beautifully expresses the joy of painting and the newfound spontaneity that Dix employed in his later work. The work offered here is a new discovery in the artist's catalogue raisonné and stands out through its rough and expressive lines.
CHF 50 000 / 70 000 | (€ 51 550 / 72 160)
Sold for CHF 79 600 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.