Koller View 4/20

3 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff spent seven formative years in the circle of the artists’ group ’Die Brücke’, followed by a creative period in Berlin. The defamatory trave- ling exhibition ’Degenerate Art’, organised by the Nazi government in 1937, included works by Schmidt-Rot- tluff. In 1941 the artist, like many of his progressive colleagues, was banned from painting. During the last years of the war, he withdrew to his birthplace of Rottluff near Chemnitz in Saxony before returning to Preview of the Impressionist & Modern Art Auction on 4 December 2020 In the name of friendship Berlin as a professor in 1947. On several occasions during the summers of 1949 to 1953, Schmidt-Rot- tluff visited the collector, patron and art dealer Hanna Bekker vom Rath (1893–1953). Vom Rath had already assisted artists who had been ostracized during the Nazi regime and secretly arranged exhibitions; in 1947 she founded the ’Frankfurter Kunstkabinett’. It was in those years of new beginnings after the end of the war that Schmidt-Rottluff created the Spessart landscape that is featured in the 4 December auc- tion (ill. 2). The forest with a distinctive fork in the road was a recurrent theme in the artist’s work. Also among the artists who could count on Hanna Bekker vom Rath’s friendship and support was the Russian-German painter Alexej von Jawlensky. They met in the 1920s, after the dissolution of the legendary ’Blaue Reiter’ group, which included Jawlensky and his compan- ions Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. Already in 1904, only a decade after his artistic edu- cation in St Petersburg, Jawlensky painted an autumn landscape (ill. 3) which can be regarded as a waysta- tion on his artistic journey from Post-Impressionism – with references to Van Gogh, Sisley and Signac – to Expressionism. A third striking landscape in this auc- tion is an example of Otto Dix’s late work (ill. 4), which he created in Hemmenhofen on Lake Constance. Like Schmidt-Rottluff, early Expressionist elements con- tinue to appear in Dix’s later works. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION IMPRESSIONIST & MODERN ART Jara Koller jara.koller@kollerauctions.com ONLINE CATALOGUES www.kollerauctions.com 1 Ernst Barlach (1870–1938). Mother and child II. 1935. Bronze with brown patina. Cast in 1978. H 59 cm. Estimate: CHF 40 000/60 000 2 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884–1976). Pines in the Spessart. 1950. Oil on canvas. 76 × 90 cm. Estimate: CHF 150 000/250 000 3 Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941). Autumn I. 1904. Oil on board. 27.4 × 44.5 cm. Estimate: CHF 80 000/120 000 4 Otto Dix (1891–1969). Flowering trees in a village. 1954. Oil on canvas. 65 × 81 cm. Estimate: CHF 50 000/80 000 1 3 4 © 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich © 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich 2