Oil on canvas
Malcomess/Drenker-Nagels 399. Signed and dated lower left. 135 x 135 cm (53,1 x 53,1 in)

PROVENANCE: Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia, acquired directly from the artist.

EXHIBITION: Heinrich Nauen, Gedächtnisausstellung, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld 1948, cat.no. 5.
Ernst Hoff, Heinrich Nauen, Stadtbürgerliche Briefe für die Jugend, Krefeld 1969.
Heinrich Nauen, Gemälde und Zeichnungen, Gedächtnisausstellung zum 100. Geburtstag, Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Krefeld/Bonn 1980, pp. 8 and 18, Cat.no. 1.

Heinrich Nauen’s early work still shows the influence of those who inspired him. The present work, for instance, is stylistically close to the paintings of his teacher Leo von Kalckreuth. In 1904 the artist lived in a little house with a garden in the Flemish village of of Sint-Martens-Latem on the Leie river. There he worked, albeit intermittently, in the artists’ community around Georges Minne, Jules de Praetere, Albert Servaes, et al. The aim of this group was to return to the roots of human existence in the tranquillity of the countryside by leading a simple life close to nature, a philosophy which positions these artists close to the German artist colonies at Worpswede and Dachau. [DP].