작품 상세

Watercolour and gouache over preparatory pencil drawing on light card 33.5/33.8 x 39 cm, framed under glass. Monogrammed and dated 'C. 19' lower right. - The colours fresh, the paper however slightly browned. Edges with small defects, lateral edges with narrow card adhesions. Few faint traces of rubbing. Firmenich 812 A Provenance Collection Josef Haubrich, Cologne (acquired directly from the artist), since then in family possession Exhibition Düsseldorf June 1920 (Galerie Flechtheim), Heinrich Campendonk / Josef Eberz, no. 48 ("Schaufenster" - Shop Window), without illus.; Eindhoven 15 Dec. 1951 - 3 Feb. 1952 (Stedelijk van Abbe-Museum), Expressionisme: werken uit de verzameling Haubrich in het Wallraf Richartz Museum te Keulen, probably no. 25 ("compositie, 1919 aquarel"), without illus. (exhibition label on reverse on frame backing) Literature Georg Biermann, Heinrich Campendonk, in: Der Cicerone. Halbmonatsschrift für Künstler, Kunstfreunde und Sammler, vol. XII, 1920, no. 18, with illus. p. 670 In 1916, Heinrich Campendonk settled in Seeshaupt near Lake Starnberg with his family, where he lived a very secluded life. This move formed a turning point in his artistic career. It was a time of intense searching for something primordial, simple and inexplicable, which Campendonk characterised as "das Letzte" (the "Ultimate") (cited after: Gisela Geiger, in: Heinrich Campendonk. Oberbayern - Station Penzberg, exhib. cat. Penzberg 2002, p. 85). He studied the works of Bosch and Breughel, but also Gauguin, Rousseau and Chagall - all painters who created their own, closed pictorial worlds, founded on the elements which Campendonk sought. In this rural setting, the artist created idyllic scenes of life in the countryside, showing a paradisical coexistence of nudes and animals in nature, with folkloric or religious themes and always underlined by a dreamy, surreal and slightly otherworldly atmosphere. There are not the slightest notions of the horrors of a war in which many of Campendonk's artist friends fell. The poverty of the people in this region, although depicted in several recurring motifs, is shown entirely devoid of drama. However, a few motifs inspired by the modern world did enter the artist's work at this point, as in our watercolour "Schaufenster" (Shop Window). Campendonk's works at this time were marked by a pronouncedly static quality. The back- and foregrounds blend into one plane, creatures and objects loose both their corporeality and their proportions, any actions or movements are halted. "This halting is not a sign of harmony, as it is in the works of Gauguin, rather, these pieces have a surreal atmosphere in which that which has been omitted seems at the same time to be present, similar to Rousseau. Together with the subtle but highly expressive palette, the complex play of light and the increasingly emancipated background, the paintings become ever more magical moments, unusually suggestive posed scenes. [...] The artistic cosmos becomes a still life. It is here that Campendonk finally finds the 'Ultimate'." (Geiger, ibid., p. 87).