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Oil on fine canvas, mounted on wooden panel 104.5 x 118.5 cm, framed. Signed and dated '46' lower right with the artist's initials in dark red. Löffler 1946/1 Provenance Galerie Klihm, Munich (until 1979) Exhibition Tübingen/Reutlingen 1946 (Kunstgebäude Tübingen), Sommerausstellung 1946. Max Ackermann, Kurt Georg Becker, Otto Dix, Jacob Fehrle, Erich Heckel, cat. no. 83; Freiburg 1950 (Kunstverein), (with frame labels on reverse), Otto Dix, Gemälde, Aquarelle, Zeichnungen, Graphik aus den Jahren 1914 bis 1950; Munich 1952 (Ausstellung Pavillon), Otto Dix, cat. no. 23; Darmstadt 1962 (Hessisches Landesmuseum), Otto Dix. Die Gemälde - Handzeichnungen - Aquarelle, cat. no. 42; Munich 1970 (Haus der Kunst), Große Kunstausstellung, cat. no. 696 (with label on reverse edge of canvas); Freiburg 1971 (Augustinermuseum), Otto Dix, Handzeichnungen, Pastelle, Lithographien aus der Sammlung Walther Grosz, cat. no. 10; Nuremberg 1977 (Germanisches Nationalmuseum), Otto Dix 1891 - 1969. Dokumente zu Leben und Werk des Malers, cat. no. 31; Lissabon 1977 (Fundaçao Calouste Gulberkian, Goethe-Institut Lisboa), Otto Dix., cat. no. 1, with illus.; Altenkirchen 1979 (Kreisständehaus), Otto Dix, Zum Gedächtnis, without cat.; Halle/Westf. 1992 (Museum Halle), Keimlinge der großen Kunst. Otto Dix und die Bibel, without cat. no., with full-page colour illus. p. 45; Bern 2010/2011 (Kunstmuseum Bern/Zentrum Paul Klee), Lust und Laster. Die 7 Todsünden von Dürer bis Naumann, without cat. no., with full-page colour illus. p. 175 Literature Fritz Löffler, Otto Dix. Leben und Werk, Dresden 1977, p. 124, full-page illus. no. 183; Bewundert wie umstritten - Wirken von Otto Dix gezeigt, "Saul und David" von kirchlicher Institution erworben, in: Rhein-Zeitung Koblenz, 21.6.1979; Klaus Otte/Hermann Krämer, Otto Dix. Das Wunder der Auferstehung noch viel größer zu machen - Zu drei religiösen Werken von Otto Dix, Emmendingen 1980, with full-page colour illus. p. 32 In the spring of 1946, Dix returned to Hemmenhofen from war imprisonment. This moment marks not only his setting out on a new phase in his life - a period defined by his joy at his regained freedom - but also a shift in the means he used to create his art. Dix abandoned his laborious, old-masterly glazing technique in order to return to an "alla prima" painting technique, which he continued to use until the end of his life. A pastose, somewhat rough application of paint, partly applied with a wide brushstroke, is characteristic of this manner of painting - this leads to an increased autonomy of and emphasis on the colour values. These colours are no longer necessarily subject to the given circumstances, but possess an independent value as vehicles of expression. This becomes particularly clear when looking at the more loosely applied colours of the background. Here the accentuation is more on colour relationships than on a detailed intelligibility. Dix's turning to the realm of religious themes is also characteristic of this new beginning. Of the 25 paintings painted after his return, seven deal with Biblical material. Dix depicted the subject of "Saul and David" a number of times in the form of paintings, drawings and lithographs, among which our painting represents the earliest variation. It shows the powerful King Saul: voluminous, sitting on his throne and bearing a spear in his left hand. The young David kneels before him, playing his harp and thus soothing the evil spirit of Saul. The theme treated here is the power of music or of the arts in general over violence and tyranny.