EGON ADLER | Still Life with Apples

Sale: Koller, Zurich, 8 December 2006, lot 3204
Private collection, Greece (purchased at the above sale; sale: Sotheby's, London, 30 November 2016, lot 2)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Berlin, Galerie Der Sturm, no. 34 (label on verso; probably 9th Sturm exhibition, 1912)

The canvas has not been lined. There are four visible small pinholes at the four corners of the composition. There are faint stretcher marks along the four edges, and some scattered drying craquelure is visible notably where the impasto is thicker in the centre of the composition. There is one small spot of flaking in the vertical, purple shape towards the centre of the upper edge and what appears to be a very old spot of paint loss in the thick impasto of the apple in the centre. However, this is not distracting and appears to be stable. Inspection under ultra-violet light reveals no visible sign of retouching. This work is in good overall condition and is ready to hang. Presented in a black wooden frame with a gilt inner slip.
"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."

Born in Karlsbad, Bohemia, in 1892, Egon Adler studied in Berlin, Munich and Weimar. He frequented the popular Café Arco in Prague, one of the meeting places of avant-garde writers and artists at the time, including those working for important publications associated with German Expressionism. Egon Adler had strong ties with the German avant-garde and first exhibited at Der Sturm Gallery in 1912, along with Gauguin and Arthur Segal, and at the First German Autumn Salon in Berlin in 1913. His pointed shapes and thick contour lines were inspired by the works of fellow artists and friends August Macke and Oskar Kokoschka, with whom he had come into contact in Vienna. When the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Adler moved back to Czechoslovakia. In 1938 he fled to Switzerland and emigrated from there to the United States where he died in 1963.