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Impressionist and Modern Art
|
- Sale 6379
Live
| New York
Oct 28 | 11:00 AM EDT
Live
| New York
Sale 6379
| New York
| New York
Estimate$30,000 – $50,000
We wish to thank Mrs. Julia Pechstein, Hamburg, for kindly confirming the authenticity of the present lot, which will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity dated September 3, 2025.
Lot Essay:
A prolific painter and printmaker, Max Pechstein is perhaps best known as a German Expressionist painter of the Die Brücke group in the years before World War I. Along with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde, they helped define a particular emotionally charged style of painting that looked to the French Fauves and primitivist art, using strong, vibrant color and angularity of lines and shapes. Pechstein spent most of the year 1908 in Paris where he experienced the work of the Fauves firsthand, including Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin, later that year moving to Berlin and seeing Matisse's paintings again at Paul Cassirer Gallery.
In 1914, the artist and his wife, in search of inspiration from more primitive art forms, traveled to Palau, an island in the western Pacific Ocean, where they were captured and imprisoned in Japan at the start of the First World War. They were later sent back to Germany and Pechstein fought in the war, becoming a more radical Socialist politically as the war drew to a close. After his service, Pechstein returned to Berlin and held a professorship teaching art at the Berlin Academy, experiencing a burst of creative energy and revisiting his Expressionist style of painting.
In the years following his war service, the artist grappled with depression, especially during the long, cold German winters, and he sought refuge at a vacation home in the fishing village and artist colony of Nidden (Nida, Lithuania) on the Baltic Sea coast. In 1921, when Nidden ceased to belong to Germany under the Treaty of Versailles, the artist set about searching for a new enclave. Setting off alone in the spring of 1921, he travelled on foot along the coast until he discovered Leba (Pomerania, now Poland), a seaside resort town located on the Baltic coast near the Łebsko Lake. The artist was struck by the natural beauty of the village, where he settled and immediately found renewed artistic inspiration: "…the new landscapes, the new people, I gorged myself upon them," the artist wrote, "I have the farmland behind, a far broader subject than in Nidden" (Pechstein, quoted in A. Soika, Max Pechstein: Das Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde, Vol. I, 1905-1918, Munich, 2011, p. 73). It was in Leba, during highly productive summer stays, that the present watercolor was executed, along with the other two works in our sale: House with Field, 1922 (Lot 22) and Fishing Boats in the Lebastrom II, 1933 (Lot 25).
Created in the summer of 1931, Fishermen on the Gardnosee by Moonlight shows eel fisherman on Lake Gardno, a large lake to the southwest of Leba, with Mount Rowokół in the background. The lake once teemed with eels, which are nocturnal predators and as such, are typically caught at night, with a full moon causing a high tide further ensuring the fishermen’s success. Here, the artist has depicted with intensity and vigor a scene of striking complementary blue and yellow pigments flanked by verdant foliage. This saturated color palette, as well as the application of strong contours, draws inspiration from French Fauve painting as well as the works of Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh. The use of this pure, bold color and dazzling play of light creates an almost hallucinatory effect.
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In overall good condition. The sheet is loose, and toned judging from the areas of the paper left bare (see the outer margins on the sides). All edges are straight and corners are complete (very minor abrasion in the middle of the right outer edge, invisible to the eye once the work is framed). Evidence of handling, and smudges alongside all four outer edges. With a blind stamp (partially obstructed) at upper right corner. We notice two pronounced horizontal folds stretching along the upper and bottom outer edges have (creating a band of about 0 1/2 in.): with small paint losses alongside the aforementioned seams, although the paper remains relatively flat. the seam at bottom cuts through the signature at bottom left. With a vertical paper tear at upper center, running down from the top outer edge (just above the sun, to the right), about 0 7/8 in. long. With four minuscule pinholes in each quadrant (in the composition rather than in the corners: see for example at upper left, the pinhole shows signs of oxydation around it, and is right on the aforementioned fold; the ones at bottom are both in the water). Minor repeated pinpoint scuffs at bottom left, center and right (at first it look like foxing but it is in fact residue). In otherwise stable condition. The reverse presents evidence of handling, with multiple creases (that are not necessarily see through). With remnants of old brown tape at each corner, and various localized pencil inscriptions. Additional images available upon request.
The physical condition of lots in our auctions can vary due to age, normal wear and tear, previous damage, and restoration/repair. All lots are sold "AS IS," in the condition they are in at the time of the auction, and we and the seller make no representation or warranty and assume no liability of any kind as to a lot's condition. Any reference to condition in a catalogue description or a condition report shall not amount to a full accounting of condition. Condition reports prepared by Freeman's staff are provided as a convenience and may be requested from the Department prior to bidding.
The absence of a posted condition report on the Freeman's website or in our catalogues should not be interpreted as commentary on an item's condition. Prospective buyers are responsible for inspecting a lot or sending their agent or conservator to inspect the lot on their behalf, and for ensuring that they have requested, received and understood any condition report provided by Freeman's.
Please email [email protected] for any additional information or questions you may have regarding this lot.
