Sale: 530 / Evening Sale / The Hermann Gerlinger Collection, June 10. 2022 in Munich Lot 23

 

23
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Holzkästchen ("Steilkasten"), 1911.
Wood, painted in red, white, brown and black, n...
Estimate:
€ 15,000 / $ 16,200
Sold:
€ 18,750 / $ 20,250

(incl. surcharge)
Holzkästchen ("Steilkasten"). 1911.
Wood, painted in red, white, brown and black, notched surface delimitation.
Wietek 240. Signed on the underside. 20.3 x 12 x 9.9 cm (7.9 x 4.7 x 3.8 in).
[KT].

• Schmidt-Rottluff's small wooden boxes became quite popular after the first comprehensive exhibition at Commeter in Hamburg in 1911.
• Collectors like Rosa Schapire from Hamburg or Karl Ernst Osthaus from Hagen asked the artist to design and make boxes and display cases.
• With a color design borrowed from his paintings, the artist attains a fascinating sculptural effect
.

PROVENANCE: Galerie Commeter, Hamburg.
Linda Melita Roosen, neé Bohlen, Hamburg (acquired from the above in 1911).
Galerie Claus Runkel, London.
Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Würzburg (with the collector stamp, acquired from the above in 1990).

EXHIBITION: Galerie Commeter, Hamburg, 1911.
Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 1995-2001).
Die Maler der Brücke. Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 226, SHG no. 324 (with illu.)., cat. no. 308 (with color illu.).
Kunstmuseum Moritzburg, Halle an der Saale (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2001-2017).
Schmidt-Rottluff. Form, Farbe, Ausdruck, Buchheim Museum, Bernried am Starnberger See, September 29, 2018 - February 3, 2019, p. 174 (with illu.).
Buchheim Museum, Bernried (permanent loan from Collection Hermann Gerlinger, 2017-2022).

LITERATURE: Lexikon der Kunst, published by Harald Olbrich and Gerhard Strauß, vol. III, Leipzig: Seemann 1991, p. 679.
Wilhelm Niemeyer, Schmidt-Rottluff: bemalte Kästen, Galerie Commeter, Hamburg, October 1911, no. 11 [unpublished manuscript in the estate].
Rosa Schapire, Zu Schmidt-Rottluffs Ausstellung bei Commeter [exhibition of 15 wooden boxes], in: Der Hamburger, year. 1, issue 12, 1910/11, pp. 267-268.
Gerhard Wietek, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff in Hamburg und Schleswig-Holstein, Neumünster 1984, pp. 11, 34, 79, 110.
Gerhard Wietek, Schmidt-Rottluff. Oldenburger Jahre 1907-1912, published by 'Stiftung Kunst und Kultur der Landessparkasse zu Oldenburg', Oldenburg, no year [1994], no. 267.
Heinz Spielmann (editor), Die Maler der Brücke. Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Stuttgart 1995, p. 226, SHG no. 308 (with illu.).
Hermann Gerlinger, Katja Schneider (editors), Die Maler der Brücke. Inventory catalog Collection Hermann Gerlinger, Halle (Saale) 2005, p. 56, SHG no. 92 (with illu.).

The artistic work of Schmidt-Rottluff is characterized by a variety of materials and forms of expression that illustrate the comprehensive and unlimited concept of art in modernism. In addition to painting and graphic art, from around 1909 he made his first woodwork, boxes, pieces of jewelry, and then painted furniture and carpets. It becomes clear how the idea of \u8203\u8203 design is not just limited to the fine arts, but also extends to the decoration of living spaces and everyday objects, which are thus included in an artistic program which ennobles them. The painted wooden boxes by Schmidt-Rottluff, which were created from 1909 onwards, combine several aspects: they are a collector's item made by the artist, a work of art, a decorative object and an article of daily use. The Dangast carpenter Wilhelm Voge (1879-1970), who also made the frames from 1907-1912, made the basic forms. Wilhelm Niemeyer (1874-1960), from 1905 a lecturer at the Düsseldorf School of Applied Arts headed by Peter Behrens and from 1910 at the Hamburg School of Applied Arts, was one of the first collectors of these boxes, in which he stored postcards, for example. His wonderful descriptions of the small boxes show the sensitive importance attached to decoration, the object and the ornament in the periods of Art Nouveau and Art Deco: "The artist's thoughts appear quite purely in the boxes painted by himself, of which I own two, and chests. These are treasures for me" (letter to Ernst Osthaus, July 29, 1914, Wilhelm Niemeyer estate, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg).

Schmidt-Rottluff's processing of the boxes shows the proximity to the woodcut technique. Incised lines border the brightly painted areas and thus create a lively, relief-like interplay, which is emphasized by the protruding and receding effect of the light and dark colors. This box was also presented alongside 14 others at the exhibition at Commeter gallery in 1911 and was described by Niemeyer in melodic-decorative language: "11. Box. Brown-blue-white-red. A brown from the bottom against a brown from top, above Blue in rising and falling bands, waves. Brown cover. Very beautiful the steepness of a constant movement side by side with the calm [..]. Resulting atmosphere: fresh, clear." (quoted from: Gerhard Wietek, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Werkverzeichnis der Plastik und des Kunsthandwerks, Munich 2001, p. 348). Early forms of abstraction thus develop in the decorative, with its stylized ornaments and lines that nevertheless make references based on the principle of empathy. One can think of natural forms such as cloud-covered mountains, winding rivers or characters, with the decorative effect of which both Niemeyer and Schmidt-Rottluff are concerned. Last but not least, the signature running across the bottom underscores the high artistic standards that Schmidt-Rottluff ascribed to his caskets. [KT]



23
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff
Holzkästchen ("Steilkasten"), 1911.
Wood, painted in red, white, brown and black, n...
Estimate:
€ 15,000 / $ 16,200
Sold:
€ 18,750 / $ 20,250

(incl. surcharge)