Lot 23 | Hermann Max Pechstein | "Unterhaltung"

PECHSTEIN, HERMANN MAX1881 Zwickau - 1955 Berlin

Title: "Unterhaltung".
Date: 1920.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 80 x 100cm.
Notation: Monogrammed and dated lower right: HMP 1920. Once more signed and dated verso. Here additionally inscribed with work number and titled: 30 (circled) Unterhaltung.
Frame/Pedestal: Craftman's frame.

In the workshop book kept by Max Pechstein in the 1920s, the painting is noted for the year 1920 with the entry "30) Unterhaltung".

Provenance:
- Galerie van Diemen, Berlin
- Private collection Berlin
- Galerie Gerd Rosen, Berlin
- Private collection Bavaria
- Art dealer Alexander Gebhardt, Munich
- Galerie Thomas, Munich
- Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia (since 1972)

Exhibitions:
- Galerie Goyert, Cologne 1921
- Kunstsalon Ludwig Schames, Frankfurt a. M. 1921
- Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover 1922
- Kunstgebäude am Schloßplatz, Stuttgart 1924
- Dankwarderode Castle, Brunswick 1925

Literature:
- Soika, Aya: Max Pechstein - Das Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde, vol. II, 1919-1954, Munich 2011, cat. rais. no. 1920/32, ill.
- Exhib. cat. H.M. Pechstein and Rudolf Belling, Galerie Goyert, Cologne 1921, cat. no. 29, ill.
- Exhib. cat. H.M. Pechstein, Kunstsalon Ludwig Schames, Frankfurt a. M. 1921, cat. no. 26
- Exhib. cat. Max Pechstein, Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover 1922, cat. no. 46
- Exhib. cat. Neue deutsche Kunst - Stuttgarter Kunstsommer, Kunstgebäude am Schloßplatz, Stuttgart 1924, cat. no. 159
- Exhib. cat. of the second large summer exhibition of the Künstlerbund Niedersachen e.V., Dankwarderode Castle, Brunswick 1925, cat. no. 117

- Harmonious composition in which Pechstein depicts the unity of all creatures and their interconnectedness
- The light-flooded colours and the faces of the sitters show a clear recollection of his trip to Palau in 1914
- In this museal work, Pechstein brings his longing for exotic cultures and their special nativeness to the canvas.