HANS PURRMANN

Provenance:
- Rudolf Senn, Basel.
- Weinmüller, Munich 1963, auction 87, lot 87/1059.
- Private collection, Schweiz.

Exhibition: Hannover 1960, Der Maler Hans Purrmann. Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen und Graphik von 1898 - 1960. Kunstverein Hannover, 1960, no. 48.

Literature:
- Lenz, Christian / Billeter, Felix: Hans Purrmann. Die Gemälde I, 1895 - 1934, Werkverzeichnis, München 2004. p. 282, no. 1924/21.
- Weltkunst, Ausgabe vom 1. September 1963, p. 22 (with ill.).
- Auktionskatalog Weinmüller München, 1963, p. 102.

“Hans Purrmann was no commonplace artist in Germany; he deviated strongly from form and did not trouble himself with content, ideology and substance. Instead he took the definition of form far and deep enough to incorporate all of life into it.”
(translated from: Karl Scheffler, Die fetten und die mageren Jahre [The Years of Few and Plenty], Leipzig/ München 1946, S. 213 f.).

Hans Purrmann’s great affinity with Italy and the Mediterranean landscape combined with his intense joie de vivre is captured in his oeuvre by both his choice of subjects and his unique, light-flooded colouration. Thus, in a single picture, he manages to combine his passion for Southern Europe with an individual style that has clearly been shaped by great French painters, as can be seen here in Harbour with sailing boats.
Within the composition, Purrmann’s penchant for concise design in the style of Henri Matisse is punctuated by a Cézanne-like spatial order that creates exciting contrasts. The equality of the individual elements in the painting creates a stable interconnectedness that is immanent within the picture and that is broken up by an intense play of clear, bright colours. As is the case in Harbour with sailing boats (Ischia), Purrmann was inclined to take a slightly elevated perspective that emphasised the spatial separation of plants, ships and coastal landscape. At the same time, he was able to capture in brush strokes and delicate pastel tones, with masterful ease, the Italian joie de vivre that he enjoyed during the mid-1920s. At the time this picture was being painted, Purrmann and his family were living in Rome during the winter months; he often took trips to Sorrento and enjoyed the Mediterranean light and the bright colours of the south.