Sale: 606 / Evening Sale, June 12. 2026 in Munich → Lot 126000300
Frame image
Frame image
126000300
Hermann Max Pechstein
Zwei liegende Mädchen, 1910.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 1,500,000 - 2,000,000
$ 1,725,000 - 2,300,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
126000300
Hermann Max Pechstein
Zwei liegende Mädchen, 1910.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 1,500,000 - 2,000,000
$ 1,725,000 - 2,300,000
Information on buyer's premium, taxation and resale right compensation will be available four weeks before the auction.
Hermann Max Pechstein
1881 - 1955
Zwei liegende Mädchen. 1910. With the still life "Holzfigur mit Tulpen" (Wooden Figure with Tulips, 1914) on the reverse.
Oil on canvas.
The still life is monogrammed and dated "1914" in the upper right. 67 x 74 cm (26.3 x 29.1 in).
• “Zwei liegende Mädchen” (Two Reclining Girls, 1910): A masterpiece of Modernism from the heyday of “Die Brücke.”
• Bold colors - Free spirit: Radical innovation regarding composition, perspective, and color palette.
• Spectacular on both sides: Two Expressionist masterpieces on a single canvas.
• Part of the collection of Dr. Karl Lilienfeld (1885–1966), an early and important patron of Expressionism, until the 1960s.
• Long forgotten and now back: Part of an international private collection for nearly 50 years.
• Museum quality: Comparable paintings at museums around the world, including the Neue Galerie in New York, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Brücke Museum, and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
PROVENANCE: Dr. Karl Lilienfeld, Leipzig/Berlin/New York (1960s).
Private collection, Winnetka, USA (acquired from the above in the 1960s).
Richard Feigen Gallery, New York.
Galerie Maison Bernard, Caracas, Venezuela.
Private collection (acquired from the above in 1976).
LITERATURE: Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, vol. 1: 1905–1918, Munich 2011, CR no. 1910/39 (front, here titled “Zwei liegende Mädchen auf einem Bett”) and CR no. 1914/4 (back), each illustrated in color.
„The attempt to capture that first, immediate impression led to a previously unattained expressiveness in Pechstein’s oil paintings. In the summer of 1910 [..] he began to emphasise the color fields, contrasting them with dark outlines. While working alongside Kirchner and Heckel, Pechstein altered his painting style so significantly that some of his figure paintings are closer to those of Kirchner or Heckel—not only in subject matter but also in style—than at any time before or since.“
Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. The Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, vol. 1: 1905-1918, Munich 2011, p. 51.
„It seems as though the painters wanted to translate the principles of their “quarter-hour nudes” from the early Brücke period onto the canvas. They diluted the oil paint from the tubes with turpentine and applied the vibrant colors to the canvas in quick, broad brushstrokes. Nude bodies were reduced to a few contour lines.“
Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. The Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, vol. 1: 1905-1918, Munich 2011, p. 50.
1881 - 1955
Zwei liegende Mädchen. 1910. With the still life "Holzfigur mit Tulpen" (Wooden Figure with Tulips, 1914) on the reverse.
Oil on canvas.
The still life is monogrammed and dated "1914" in the upper right. 67 x 74 cm (26.3 x 29.1 in).
• “Zwei liegende Mädchen” (Two Reclining Girls, 1910): A masterpiece of Modernism from the heyday of “Die Brücke.”
• Bold colors - Free spirit: Radical innovation regarding composition, perspective, and color palette.
• Spectacular on both sides: Two Expressionist masterpieces on a single canvas.
• Part of the collection of Dr. Karl Lilienfeld (1885–1966), an early and important patron of Expressionism, until the 1960s.
• Long forgotten and now back: Part of an international private collection for nearly 50 years.
• Museum quality: Comparable paintings at museums around the world, including the Neue Galerie in New York, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the Brücke Museum, and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.
PROVENANCE: Dr. Karl Lilienfeld, Leipzig/Berlin/New York (1960s).
Private collection, Winnetka, USA (acquired from the above in the 1960s).
Richard Feigen Gallery, New York.
Galerie Maison Bernard, Caracas, Venezuela.
Private collection (acquired from the above in 1976).
LITERATURE: Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, vol. 1: 1905–1918, Munich 2011, CR no. 1910/39 (front, here titled “Zwei liegende Mädchen auf einem Bett”) and CR no. 1914/4 (back), each illustrated in color.
„The attempt to capture that first, immediate impression led to a previously unattained expressiveness in Pechstein’s oil paintings. In the summer of 1910 [..] he began to emphasise the color fields, contrasting them with dark outlines. While working alongside Kirchner and Heckel, Pechstein altered his painting style so significantly that some of his figure paintings are closer to those of Kirchner or Heckel—not only in subject matter but also in style—than at any time before or since.“
Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. The Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, vol. 1: 1905-1918, Munich 2011, p. 51.
„It seems as though the painters wanted to translate the principles of their “quarter-hour nudes” from the early Brücke period onto the canvas. They diluted the oil paint from the tubes with turpentine and applied the vibrant colors to the canvas in quick, broad brushstrokes. Nude bodies were reduced to a few contour lines.“
Aya Soika, Max Pechstein. The Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, vol. 1: 1905-1918, Munich 2011, p. 50.
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