Ludwig Meidner

Dr Wilhelm R. Valentiner, Berlin & New York
Sale: Villa Grisebach, Berlin, 2nd June 1990, lot 14
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum (& travelling), From Expressionism to Resistance, Art in Germany 1909-1936, The Janet and Marvin Fishman Collection, 1991-92, no. 116
The Hague, Museum Het Palais (& travelling), Kunst als Verzet/Art as Resistance, 1995-96
Milwaukee, Patrick & Beatrice Haggerty Museum of Art, German and Austrian Art of the 1920s and 1930s: The Marvin and Janet Fishman Collection, 2002
Milwaukee, Milwaukee Art Museum, Ludwig Meidner from the Janet and Marvin Fishman Collection, 2005

The canvas is not lined and there are no signs of retouching under UV light. There are areas of uneven fluorescence, due to an uneven varnish, visible under UV light. This work is in very good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Landschaft mit Birke, painted in 1919, is a powerful and arresting image bearing testimony not only to Meidner's artistic mastery, but also to his emotional turmoil in the year succeeding  World War I, one of the most destructive and dramatic periods in human history. Deeply affected by the aftermath of the war, Meidner would pour all his energy onto the canvas, sometimes leaving aside his brush and painting with bare hands. As Eberhard Roters comments: 'Far from alleviating his wretched physical state, his work exacerbates it; but in his creative frenzy he transcends it all, liberating his inner self and finding release in raising his sensations from the physical to the metaphysical and from the psychic to the metaphysic. This struggle that the artist wages every night in his studio – the battle against canvas, paint, and himself – is an orgy of solitude, an orgy of introversion' (Eberhard Roters, The Apocalyptic Landscapes of Ludwig Meidner (exhibition catalogue), Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, 1989, p. 71).

Following on from Meidner's series of Apocalyptic Landscapes, executed between 1912 and 1916, Landschaft mit Birke is a quintessential Expressionist painting, charged with personal symbolism and a more universal apocalyptic vision. In the present work, the hilly landscape is illuminated by a bright, white flashlight, uncovering a lonely birch tree in an otherwise arid, empty scene. This suggestion of solitude is further enhanced by the brisk, determined brushstrokes of ochre and yellow against the dark blue sky. The white of the flashlight and clouds emerges from the picture plane as if to approach the viewer's space, thus creating an uneasy, almost threatening atmosphere. Through this symbolically charged image Meidner allows us a view not only of his tormented existence, but also of the overall catastrophe that hit Europe.