Fishermen on the Beach

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Rottluff 1884 - Berlin 1976)

1924. Watercolour and ink. 50 x 64,5 cm. Framed under glass. Lo. ri. sign. and dat. Srottluff 1924. Professionally restored. Schmidt-Rottluff regularly spent summers in Jershöft in Hinterpommern between 1920 and 1931, and the motif of this watercolour also comes from there. The relationship between man and nature occupied the artist again and again during this period. Probably few professions are so directly at the mercy of nature as fishermen. One of them shows a face so typical of the German Expressionists, reminiscent of African masks, which, together with the broad shoulders, gives him something archetypal. Strong primary colors reinforce the impression of the primitive and unadulterated. Only at second glance does the sea present itself as the real protagonist, the real power. In colour gradations ranging from lovely light blue to threatening black, it vaults over the center of the picture, and the exaggerated curvature of the horizon gives rise to the thought of a mighty wave. - Expertise: Karl und Emy Schmidt-Rottluff-Stiftung, 26.10.2019 - Exhibition: The watercolour was exhibited: Städtisches Kunstmuseum Duisburg 1955, cat. no. 68; Schloss Charlottenburg Berlin, 1954, cat. no. 125 - Provenance: Hamburg private collection, in the family since the 1950s - One of the most important exponents of expressionist art, began studying architecture in Dresden in 1905, besides Kirchner, Heckel a. Bleyl he was co-founder of the 'Brücke' in 1905, the style of which became distinctive for German expressionism, in 1911 he moved to Berlin a. exhibited with the 'Neue Secession Berlin', the 'Blauer Reiter' a. the 'Sonderbund' in Cologne, after the war he also exhibited at the Documenta, many of his artworks were seized a. destroyed by the Nazis as 'degenerate', in 1946 he was made professor in Berlin, in 1964 he initiated the fouding of the Brücke museum in Berlin. Mus.: Berlin (Brücke Mus., Nat. Gall.), New York (MoMA), London (Tate), Hamburg (Kunsthalle), Frankfurt (Städel) a. others. Lit.: Thieme-Becker, Vollmer, Bénézit a. many more.