Kurt Schwitters

Harry Pierce, Elterwater, United Kingdom (gift of the artist in 1947-48)
Joyce G. Priestley, Thirsk, United Kingdom (by descent from the above in 1967)
Annely Juda Fine Art, London
Acquired from the above in 1996

Kendal, England, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kurt Schwitters in the Lake District, October - November 1964, cat. no. 15
London, Annely Juda Fine Art; Paris, Galerie Denise René & Düsseldorf, Galerie Hans Mayer, 1945 The End of the War, June - December 1995, cat. no. 60, illustrated 

Karin Orchard & Isabel Schulz, Kurt Schwitters, Catalogue Raisonné 1937-1948, Vol. III, Ostfildern-Ruit 2006, cat. no. 3411, p. 581, illustrated

Executed more than twenty years after Ohne Titel (Konstruktion mit Rotem Kreis und Schwarzem Dreieck) (lot 7), the present lot is an important abstract work from the artist’s mature period. Schwitters was incredibly inspired by his surroundings in the Lake District of England, where he lived in exile, and 1947 was one of the most productive years in the artist’s life. He experienced a rediscovery of his Expressionist roots and painted landscapes and portraits with a naturalism unseen in his earlier production. In the present lot, Schwitters imbues his painting with the qualities of an assemblage by overlapping abstract shapes and creating textures by varying brushstrokes. This is a forceful but organic composition, entirely abstract but not attached to or tied down by any particular set of rules. Living in self-imposed exile, playing the part of perennial outsider, Schwitters proves himself here as one of the most defiantly original artists of the first half of the twentieth century. Towards the end of his life, Schwitters seemed determined to use his entire arsenal of artistic skills to finally bring everything together.