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Impressionist & Modern Art
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3201* AUGUST BABBERGER(Hausen in Wiesental 1885 - 1936 Altdorf)
Landscape view of Lake Lucerne and
Pilatus. 1915.
Oil on hardboard.
Signed and datet lower left: Babberger
1915.
66.5 x 82.5 cm.
The authenticity of the work has been
confirmed by Andreas Gabelmann, Sep-
tember 2016.
Provenance:
- Private collection, Switzerland.
- Private collection, San Francisco.
- Private collection, New York.
In 1895 the Babbergers came from
Germany to Basel, Switzerland, where
August Babberger spent the best part of
his school days and later completed an ap-
prenticeship with a master painter. Back in
Germany he attended a course in etching
for a year, and finally received a scholarship
for the Accademia Internationale di Belle
Arti in Florence, where Augusto Giaco-
metti was his teacher from 1909 to 1911.
Symbolism and Art Nouveau influenced
Babberger’s early work. His model was
Ferdinand Hodler, and the links to his style
in some of the paintings is unmistakable.
After his studies in Florence, Babberger
began to become more and more involved
in landscape. Through his wife who was
from Lucerne, he familiarised himself with
the Swiss landscape around Lake Lucerne,
which became his second home, with its
surrounding body of mountains providing
inspiration and fascination. From 1915 the
summit of the Pilatus caught his interest
and in subsequent years it became the
main subject of his pictures. From 1917
Babberger eventually found his way into
Expressionism, which manifested itself
in many of his pictures. After the Nati-
onal Socialists came to power in 1933,
Babberger’s art was classed as degene-
rate (“entartet”) and he lost his position
as Professor of decorative painting at the
academy in Karlsruhe. After his dismissal,
he joined his wife in Switzerland, where he
died in 1936 following an operation. After
Babberger’s death a number of his pain-
tings were seized fromGerman museums
and later shown at the “Entartete Kunst”
exhibition.
The present work is a typical example of
Babberger’s art circa 1915/16. As subject
he has chosen his preferred landscape
of Lake Lucerne and the Pilatus. Styli-
stically, Hodler’s influence is strongly in
evidence. In addition, the intensification
of the colours and the simplification of the
forms also show the influence of Augusto
Giacometti. Although Babberger is one of
the forgotten German-Swiss artists, with
his comprehensive body of work in many
museums, we may now regard him as one
of the important expressionist artists of
the classic modern period.
CHF 5 000 / 7 000
(€ 4 630 / 6 480)