Sommerlandschaft (A S Landschaft 1. Hochsommer). 1914/1917.
Oil on canvas.
Orchard/Schulz 114. 45 x 60 cm (17.7 x 23.6 in) [JS].

• Beautiful early impressionist landscape by the important German Dada artist.
• Shown at the grand exhibition "Aller Anfang ist Merz" at the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, and the Haus der Kunst, Munich.
• Only five years later, Schwitters created his first Merz pictures - his famous Dadaist collages and assemblages.
• In parallel to his abstract works, Schwitters continued to paint some impressionistic landscapes.
• Schwitters expresses awareness of the contradictions in his different pictorial languages by saying: "I have nothing to hide, not even that the sentimentality of recreating nature still clings so pleasantly to me today [..]" (quote from: Kurt Schwitters. Works and documents, edited by Sprengel Museum Hanover, Hanover 1998, p. 174).

Accompanied by a photo expertise from Ernst Schwitters, the artist's son, Lysaker/Norway, from August 13, 1992. The painting is documented in the archive with the number 1916/17 - 1949.

PROVENANCE: Christian Wohlberg, Rotenburg (1979, Schloss Ahlden, 1979/80).
Galerie Wolf, Düsseldorf (1980, Schloss Ahlden, 1979/80).
Private collection Germany (until 1993, Ketterer Kunst, Munich, November 29, 1993).
Private collection Southern Germany (since 1993, Ketterer Kunst, Munich, November 29, 1993).

EXHIBITION: 84. Große Kunstausstellung, Kunstverein Hanover, Hanover 1916, cat. no. 358.
Aller Anfang ist Merz. Von Kurt Schwitters bis heute, Sprengel Museum, Hanover, August 20 - November 5, 2000; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, November 25, 2000 - February 18, 2001; Haus der Kunst, Munich, March 9 - May 20, 2001, Ostfildern 2000, cat. no. 5, with illu. on p. 17 (stretcher with two labels).

LITERATURE: Schloss Ahlden, auction, 1979/80.
Ketterer Kunst, Munich, Modern Art I, 193rd auction on November 29, 1993, lot no. 304, with illu.