Helmut Kolle's painterly work, which came to an early end with his death at the age of only 32, has a unique position in the art history of European Modernism. Born in Berlin in 1899, the young artist soon realized that the Berlin art scene, still largely dominated by the impressionist works of Max Liebermann, was not not ready for his work. In September 1918, the young Kolle made the acquaintance of the art dealer and art critic Wilhelm Uhde. The close friendship with Uhde, who opened a gallery in Montparnasse as early as in 1904 and is regarded the discoverer of Picasso, Braque and Rousseau, was of decisive importance for Kolle's artistic development. It was also the friend and supporter Uhde who, after Kolle's early death, wrote the painter’s first biography, which continued to establish Kolle's reputation as one of the protagonists of European Modernism. In 1924, together with his partner Uhde, the artist, who, according to the photographs that have survived, cultivated a particularly fashionable, almost dandy-like appearance, finally moved to the art metropolis of Paris, where the present portrait was created. What is striking is the simple clothing, the plain white shirt, which, contrary to his characteristic role portraits in unusual costumes, emphasizes his stylistic peculiarity and his reduced painterly means in a special way. Kolle's works were soon equally successful with the public and the press in Paris. In 1928, shortly after French collectors and museums began buying works by the German painter, Kolle, who was suffering from heart and lung disease, had to leave the city. He moved to his friend Wilhelm Uhde in Chantilly, where he died at the age of 32 on November 17, 1931. While Kolle's early work in Berlin often shows clear reminiscence of the artists of the Parisian avant-garde, Kolle increasingly found his own, unmistakable artistic signature in Paris. From then on, he created almost exclusively self-portraits and portraits, mostly of young, strong men. Living in unstable health himself, Kolle seems to have seen the portrayal of strong young men as a dreamed-up ideal of strength and masculinity that he himself never achieved. Thus mostly sailors, soldiers and toreros are subjects of his paintings; Figures that burst with strength and zest for action and which suggest to be idealized self-portraits. [JS]