OTTO MUELLER | Akt unter Bäumen (Nude under Trees)

Herbert Tannenbaum, Mannheim
Private Collection, New York (by descent from the above in 1958)
Thence by descent to the present owner

Columbus (Ohio), Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts & Pasadena (California), Pasadena Art Museum, German Expressionism, 1961, no. 78, illustrated in the catalogue (titled Girl in a Landscape)

Für die Kunst! Herbert Tannenbaum und sein Kunsthaus, Ein Galerist - seine Kunstler, seine Kunden, sein Konzept (exhibition catalogue), Mannheim, Reiss-Museum, 1994-95, illustrated in colour in the catalogue p. 79
Mario-Andreas von Lüttichau & Tanja Pirsig, Otto Mueller, Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Essen, 2007, CD-ROM, no. 838

This work is in very good overall condition. Executed on cream-coloured wove paper, not laid down. The sheet is hinged to a mount at all four corners on the verso. The sheet is unevenly time stained and all four edges are unevenly cut. There is a faint mount stain running around all four edges. There is a faint horizontal crease running across the top centre of the composition, about three centimetres from the top edge. There are minor handling creases in all four corners. There is a spot of skinning in the upper left edge, approximately four centimetres from the top left corner. There are minor nicks along the bottom edge.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Akt unter Bäumen is an important example of a theme that is central to Otto Mueller's œuvre: the nude in a landscape. Executed circa 1923, a slender bather with cropped blonde hair is depicted standing on the banks of a tranquil blue lake, drying herself in the dappled shade of myriad trees. The atmosphere and overall tone is one of lyrical timelessness, echoing the grand tradition of 19th-Century figure painting with its ideal of a return to nature but in a wholly radical new way; here, primacy is given to raw colour, simplified form and immediacy of observation.

One of the only members of the Die Brücke group to have any formal training as a painter, Mueller joined the movement in 1910 when he was thirty-six years old. The previous year, he had exhibited a bathing scene at the first exhibition of the Neue Sezession in Berlin, attracting the attention of Erich Heckel and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner who admired its faux-naïve qualities. In the summer of 1911, a collective trip to the lakes of Moritzburg would prove definitive. There, living and painting together in nature, they forged a group style founded on spontaneously created images made in direct response to their natural environment. Akt unter Bäumen’s pervasive sense of vitality reflects the plein-air immediacy of the group’s origins and their pursuit of a unique and integrated vision of man and nature. Mueller’s own stated objective was to refine his works into pure idealised form. He once said: ‘my main aim is to express my response to landscape and people with the utmost simplicity. My model was, and still is, the art of the ancient Egyptians, including its purely technical aspect’ (Otto Mueller, Entartete Kunst Bildersturm vor 25 Jahren, Munich, 1926, n.p.). Characteristically flattened to echo the linearity of ancient Egyptian figure painting, the woman’s two-dimensional pose in Akt unter Bäumen conveys a primitive elegance. Outlined in blue, her expressive angular body blends harmoniously with the surrounding foliage. Mueller uses blues and greens in rapid, jagged, broad strokes that echo the technique of his woodcuts and establish a compositional rhythm throughout the watercolour.

A melodious symbiosis of form, style and subject matter, which serves as an eloquent embodiment of Mueller’s idyllic Arcadian vision, Akt unter Bäumen comes from the esteemed collection of Herbert Tannenbaum. A prominent gallery owner and patron of European Modern art, Tannenbaum counted several contemporary artists among his friends, notably Otto Mueller and Max Beckmann. Tannenbaum began his career in Mannheim, Germany, opening a gallery named 'Das Kunsthaus' in 1925. In 1937, he was forced to flee Nazi persecution and escaped to Amsterdam where Beckmann was also in exile. The dealer and painter often met up with one another during this time; Beckmann mentions many visits by Herbert Tannenbaum in his diary. Once the war was over, Tannenbaum moved on to New York where he was able to establish a new gallery. In 1947, to mark the occassion, Beckmann painted a celebrated portrait of Tannenbaum entitled Tannenbaum goes to America that now belongs to the Kunsthalle Mannheim. Tannenbaum died in 1958 whilst on a trip home to Germany.



The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Dr. Tanja Pirsig-Marshall and it will be included in her forthcoming Catalogue raisonné under number 1923/20 (838).