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Impressionist & Modern Art
3223* HANS PURRMANN(Speyer 1880 - 1966 Basel)
House under trees. Circa 1911.
Oil on canvas.
46 x 38.5 cm.
Provenance:
- A. Pacitti, Paris.
- Hotel Drouot, Paris 1995, Lot 35.
- Private collection, Germany.
Literature: Lenz, Christian / Billeter, Felix:
Hans Purrmann. Die Gemälde I, 1895 -
1934, Werkverzeichnis, Munich 2004, n.
1911/05, p. 164 (with ill.).
In 1905 Purrmann met the artist Henri
Matisse in Paris. In addition to a good
friendship, a teacher/student relation-
ship simultaneously developed in which
Purrmann viewed himself as a student
of the older Matisse. From Paris, the two
undertook various trips abroad. In addition
to stays in Germany, the artist friends tra-
velled to the south of France. In Cassis and
Collioure, they depicted the surroundings
and created colourful works – Purrmann
always out to learn fromMatisse and de-
velop from his criticism. "[…] He (Matisse)
then began to praise himself and claimed
I had made tremendous progress, he is
delighted with the richness of the colour,
with the harmony, and he finds my present
work as savoureuse in colour and plein as
what I used to make, found that I had only
changed my palette, which he considered
to be the hardest thing to do, and he found
this very distinct and very painterly." (cited
in: Billeter, Lenz: Purrmann. Die Gemälde,
vol. I, p. 35)
Probably due to the influence of his
teacher, Purrmann's brushwork becomes
freer and looser in the paintings of Colliou-
re in the same way that his colour palette
changes and becomes stronger. The
present work was painted on this same
trip with Matisse in Collioure. On the back
of the picture, it is noted that the work
was submitted before Matisse in 1949 and
that he recognised the hand of Purrmann,
thus attributing it to his friend/student. On
19.02.1950 Purrmann confirmed Matisse
that the present painting is his own work.
CHF 50 000 / 70 000
(€ 44 640 / 62 500)