9 Enten im Abendlicht. Um 1910.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower left. Numbered verso on the stretcher by hand "aa 119". 62.5 x 96.5 cm (24.6 x 37.9 in).

• Koester was fascinated with the visual allure of the genre: he used light and color to capture the fleeting impression of the plumage, the reflections of sunlight on the water, and movement in a free, impressionistic style.
• Koester modernized the animal and bird genre, which goes back to 17th-century Dutch painting, by making it purely pictorial.
• His depictions of ducks were very popular and found their way into collections and museums: Emperor Wilhelm II purchased the duck painting “Siesta” in 1900, while King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy followed suit in 1907.

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Germany.

"The pleasure of these amusing waterbirds can be explained by looking at the white, loose plumage, the orange beaks, the reflections in the water, the sunshine, the blue reflections of the air - an abundance of technical things .."

Exhibition review Bozen 1902, quoted from: Ruth Stein, Hans Koester, Alexander Koester 1864-1932, Leben und Werk, Recklinghausen 1988, p. 47.