Aus dem Orpheuszyklus - Geträumte Stadt. 1928 /46.
Oil on paper.
Schwengers G 115. Signed in lower right. Verso with date "1928", and with the erased inscription "Stadt der Toten unverkäufl." and the note "verkäuflich". 43.3 x 60 cm (17 x 23.6 in) , the full sheet.
A. Hentzen suggests the years 1946 as the work's date of origin. Werner Gills was gripped by a creative boost in the years after the war, and made, among others, the 'Orpheus Cycle'. In a letter to Prof. Hans Mettel he points to some of these works: "dreamt landscpaes. the city of the dead, I also paint heads now, a Greek lady, the hunter, the warrior.." (Hentzen, 1960, p. 114).
Schwenger's catalog raisonneé G 115 mentions "Stadt der Toten" as title. [EH].

PROVENANCE: Private collection Kurt Brandes, Berlin.
Private collection Berlin (until 2003).
Private collection Lower Saxony (since 2003).

LITERATURE: A. Hentzen, Werner Gilles, Cologne 1960, p. 114 and illu. 66. (here titled "Stadt der Toten").