Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

Martha and Paul Rauert, Hamburg (acquired from the artist circa 1914-20)

Dr. Ing. H.-P. Rauert, Hamburg (by descent from the above)

Private Collection

Wolfgang Werner, Bremen (acquired from the above in 1990)

Diethelm Hoener, Germany (acquired from the above and sold: Phillips, de Pury & Luxembourg, New York, The Hoener Collection, November 5, 2001, lot 13)

Acquired at the above sale

Hanover, Kunstverein; Essen, Museum Folkwang; Frankfurt, Kunstverein & Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff: Gemälde, Aquarelle, Graphik, 1963-64, no. 56, illustrated in the catalogue (also with the title Nidden, Kurische Nehrung)

Hamburg, Altonaer Museum, Schmidt-Rottluff: Gemälde, 1974, no. 15, illustrated in the catalogue

Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum, Schleswig-Reithalle, Gottorf, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff zum 100. Geburtstag, 1984, no. 23, illustrated in the catalogue

Bremen, Kunsthalle & Munich, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Retrospektive, 1989, no. 155, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Karl Brix, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Leipzig, 1972, no. 26, illustrated p. 153

Gerhard Wietek, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, Neumünster, 1984, no. 60, illustrated p. 188

Excellent condition. Original canvas Under ultra-violet light, there are no retouches. The surface is immaculate and the painting is in excellent condition.
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Painted in 1914, the present work is a vibrant composition depicting a series of farm buildings with red-tiled roofs amidst a fertile landscape that is dominated by a large in the foreground.  Although he lived in Berlin during this period, Schmidt-Rottluff made frequent painting excursions to the countryside, including a month-long stay in June in the fishing village of Holstein on the Baltic coast.  The artist also travelled to Innsbruck and Munich later in the summer, as well as visiting his mother in his home village, Rottluff, which gave him his painter's name and is perhaps where the present scene is set.

"In his style during 1914 Schmidt-Rottluff reached a geometric formal vocabulary, an ascetic reduction of form, which leads on from the volumetric style based on its dynamic line that he had used up to that point.  Alterations of form, stylisation of form and formal biases, such as those to be found in African sculpture, are taken up by Schmidt-Rottluff and made to fit his own creativity" (Magdelena M. Moeller (ed.), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (exhibition catalogue), Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich & Kunsthaus, Vienna, 1997, p. 30, translated from the German).

Gehöft is a striking example of this new tendency in Schmidt-Rottluff's painting towards a geometric reduction of form, with its simple angular shapes, bold outlines and schematic rendering of the farmstead.  In its freshness and energy of vision, in its breaking-through to a new formal vocabulary and its vigorous rendering of an age-old scene of rural life, Gehöft is an important and dramatic painting from a highly productive and original period in Schmidt-Rottluff's career.