The Artist's Mother, Meta Laserstein
Lotte Laserstein (Preußisch Holland/Königsberg 1898 - Kalmar/Schweden 1993)
Lot-No. 8
Proceeds : 65.600 €
Around 1921. Oil/fabric. 55,5 x 44,5 cm. Some rest., relined. In this portrait of her mother, Laserstein already began to realise her desire, expressed in the early 1920s, to 'paint like Leibl one day'. However, she owed the muted colouring and the block-like areas of colour not only to Leibl, but also to her early teacher Leo von König, with whom she took lessons even before she was admitted to the academy. His specialisation in portraits suited her talent and he also taught her to treat the face and hands as the most expressive parts of the portrait. The formal and flat black clothing forms the most effective contrast. The face, which is animated and lively in differentiated areas of colour, is framed by a freely treated, colour-intensive and aureole-like hairstyle. It forms the transition to the formally completely different background. At the height of German Expressionism, Laserstein creates the cityscape with dynamic brushstrokes in a series of ascending lines; the young Laserstein's love of experimentation leads to a work of singular significance in the artist's oeuvre. Formally and in terms of colour, an effective contrast is created between the urban environment and the sitter, which is reinforced by the windowless and thus abstracted residential buildings together with the leafless tree and the moving clouds. The way in which the buildings surround the mother's head makes it clear how much she is nevertheless part of this world. The mother does not live in conflict. She literally forms the radiant centre and, with her hands resting on top of each other and her pensively lowered gaze, at the same time the haven of peace in this intimate cosmos. - Expertise: Authentication: Anna-Carola Krausse, Berlin December 2023 - Provenance: From the artist's estate directly to the consignor. - German-Swedish portrait, figure and landscape painter. She received her first painting lessons at her aunt Elsa Birnbaum's painting school in Danzig. She then studied from 1921-1927 at the State School of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin under E. Wolfsfeld; women were only admitted to art academies as students in 1919. L. established herself as a portrait painter in Berlin, but found herself subject to considerable restrictions in the practice of her profession immediately after the National Socialists came to power. Portrait commissions increasingly dried up, which she tried to compensate for by taking private painting lessons. She was forced to close her painting school in 1935 and made the life-saving decision to emigrate to Sweden in 1937. There she worked as an artist for the rest of her life, primarily as a sought-after portrait painter. In 1987, she was honored for the first time in London and then repeatedly in Germany and Sweden with retrospectives. Mus.: Berlin (Nat. Gall.) a. others. Lit.: Vollmer, A.-C. Krausse: L. L., Leben u. Werk, cat. rais., 2006.
Lotte Laserstein: The Artist's Mother, Meta Laserstein
Lotte Laserstein (Preußisch Holland/Königsberg 1898 - Kalmar/Schweden 1993)
The Artist's Mother, Meta Laserstein
Lot-No. 8
Proceeds : 65.600 €
Around 1921. Oil/fabric. 55,5 x 44,5 cm. Some rest., relined. In this portrait of her mother, Laserstein already began to realise her desire, expressed in the early 1920s, to 'paint like Leibl one day'. However, she owed the muted colouring and the block-like areas of colour not only to Leibl, but also to her early teacher Leo von König, with whom she took lessons even before she was admitted to the academy. His specialisation in portraits suited her talent and he also taught her to treat the face and hands as the most expressive parts of the portrait. The formal and flat black clothing forms the most effective contrast. The face, which is animated and lively in differentiated areas of colour, is framed by a freely treated, colour-intensive and aureole-like hairstyle. It forms the transition to the formally completely different background. At the height of German Expressionism, Laserstein creates the cityscape with dynamic brushstrokes in a series of ascending lines; the young Laserstein's love of experimentation leads to a work of singular significance in the artist's oeuvre. Formally and in terms of colour, an effective contrast is created between the urban environment and the sitter, which is reinforced by the windowless and thus abstracted residential buildings together with the leafless tree and the moving clouds. The way in which the buildings surround the mother's head makes it clear how much she is nevertheless part of this world. The mother does not live in conflict. She literally forms the radiant centre and, with her hands resting on top of each other and her pensively lowered gaze, at the same time the haven of peace in this intimate cosmos. - Expertise: Authentication: Anna-Carola Krausse, Berlin December 2023 - Provenance: From the artist's estate directly to the consignor. - German-Swedish portrait, figure and landscape painter. She received her first painting lessons at her aunt Elsa Birnbaum's painting school in Danzig. She then studied from 1921-1927 at the State School of Fine and Applied Arts in Berlin under E. Wolfsfeld; women were only admitted to art academies as students in 1919. L. established herself as a portrait painter in Berlin, but found herself subject to considerable restrictions in the practice of her profession immediately after the National Socialists came to power. Portrait commissions increasingly dried up, which she tried to compensate for by taking private painting lessons. She was forced to close her painting school in 1935 and made the life-saving decision to emigrate to Sweden in 1937. There she worked as an artist for the rest of her life, primarily as a sought-after portrait painter. In 1987, she was honored for the first time in London and then repeatedly in Germany and Sweden with retrospectives. Mus.: Berlin (Nat. Gall.) a. others. Lit.: Vollmer, A.-C. Krausse: L. L., Leben u. Werk, cat. rais., 2006.
