Oil on canvas
Signed, inscribed "pinxit" and dated upper right. 105 x 85 cm (41,3 x 33,4 in)
In a frame that was thought up and painted by Mataré. Paitings of Ewald Mataré are very rarely on the market.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Rhineland (acquired directly from the artist).

Little is known about the few paintings that Ewald Mataré made in the early days of his artistic oeuvre. This excellent portrait of the wife of the architect Carl Schmitz shows the artist Mataré from a new and almost unknown side. Ewald Mataré and his brother Josef were close friends of the Schmitz‘s, a portrait of Carl Schmitz, executed by Josef Mataré, was called up in our auction 357 Sideways of the German Avant-garde. With its rather conventional composition, this portrait is proof of an approach to a depicted person with a strong sense of individuality, an approach that will be exemplarily negated in Mataré’s later work. The influence of Lovis Corinth, but also that of Max Beckmann becomes obvious. Mataré did not pursue this track any further. His œuvre, which is generally regarded as an oeuvre of plastic works and woodcuts, is more multifaceted than expected. [KD].