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Impressionist & Modern Art
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3228
HANS PURRMANN(Speyer 1880 - 1966 Basel)
Harbour with sailing boats (Ischia). 1924.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower right: Purrmann.
73.5 x 65.5 cm.
Provenance:
- Rudolf Senn, Basel.
- Weinmüller, Munich 1963, auction 87, lot
87/1059.
- Private collection, Switzerland.
Exhibition: Hannover 1960, Der Maler Hans
Purrmann. Ölgemälde, Aquarelle, Zeich-
nungen 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 Sou-
thern 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 Cézan-
ne-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 empha-
sised 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 master-
ful 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.
CHF 80 000 / 120 000
(€ 74 070 / 111 110)