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Lot 3225 - A199 Impressionist & Modern Art - Friday, 03. December 2021, 04.00 PM

PHILIPP BAUKNECHT

(Barcelona 1884–1933 Davos)
Alte Bäuerin mit Hühnern. Circa 1920.
Oil on canvas.
Signed lower right: Ph. Bauknecht.
Titled on the reverse: Alte Bäuerin mit Hühner.
80 × 72 cm.


Provenance:
- Galerie Kunsthandel Monet, Amsterdam.
- Galerie Valentien, Stuttgart (label on the reverse of the cardboard).
- Swiss private collection.

Exhibited:
- Amsterdam 1961, Philipp Bauknecht, Galerie Kunsthandel Monet.
- Münster 1963, Philipp Bauknecht, Freie Künstlergemeinschaft Schanze.
- Emden 1964, Philipp Bauknecht, Landesmuseum.
- Bremen 1965, Philipp Bauknecht, Paula Becker-Modersohn-Haus.
- Stuttgart 1995, Art of the 20th Century, Galerie Valentien (with ill. in cat.).

Literature:
- Iris Wazzau and Gioia Smid: Philipp Bauknecht, Gemälde - Paintings, Davos 2016, p. 142, no. 079 (with ill.).
- Gelderlander, 14.7.1961, "Drie schilders in Davos. Bauknecht: onbevangen, zuiver expressionistisch schilder" (with ill.).

It has long escaped art history that along with Ernst Ludwig Kirchner another German expressionist lived and worked in Davos. This revelation may have been delayed for a variety of reasons, including the artist's untimely death in 1933 at the age of 49, or the fact that his widow hid the estate from the Nazis and only began showing the works to the public again in the 1960s.

Philipp Bauknecht, whose work almost without exception was created in Davos and appears to have been influenced by the mountain world of Giovanni Segantini, Cuno Amiet and Giovanni Giacometti, was one of the artists included in the notorious 1937 propaganda exhibition of "Degenerate Art". The present work is exemplary of the artist’s evocation of an atmospheric mood characterised by flat brushwork and a bright palette. The accentuation of the archaic—Bauknecht himself lived in a secluded farmhouse at that time—highlights a life marked by farm work in the mountains and the unique demeanour of its people. The extent to which the interpretation and analysis of his oeuvre has changed is revealed by the discourse of the mutual influence of Kirchner and Bauknecht and the artistic dominance of one artist or the other, which in the meantime can more likely be described as kinship.

Bauknecht's individual will for artistic expression is manifest in an idiosyncratic quality that both fascinates and irritates the viewer through the use of intense contrasts. The year 1920, when the present painting ‘Bäuerin mit Hühne’ was created, marks a decisive point in Bauknecht's creative work and reflects his turn towards this new expressive power.


CHF 25 000 / 35 000 | (€ 25 770 / 36 080)

Sold for CHF 165 000 (including buyer’s premium)
All information is subject to change.