Hermann Max Pechstein Vintage Die Brucke German Expressionist Fauve Nidden Fishing Village Road Cottages Landscape Oil Painting
Max Pechstein was born in Zwickau, the son of a craftsman who worked in a textile mill. Early contact with the art of Vincent van Gogh stimulated Pechstein's development toward expressionism. After studying art at the School of Applied Arts and then at the Royal Art Academy in Dresden, Pechstein met Erich Heckel and joined Die Brücke in 1906. He was the only member to have formal art training. Later in Berlin, he helped to found the Neue Sezession and gained recognition for his decorative and colorful paintings that were lent from the ideas of Van Gogh, Matisse, and the Fauves. His paintings eventually became more primitivist, incorporating thick black lines and angular figures.
Pechstein first visited the fishing village of Nidden in 1909, (which is now in the territory of Lithuania). He found it to be a "Nordic Paradise", and a source if great inspiration for his art, which often depicts the landscapes, fishing boats, cottages and architecture, dunes, and people within that coastal area.
Pechstein's time in Nidden was a liberating experience that influenced his style. He moved away from his earlier, more conventional work, and developed a more expressive "Fauve Expressionism" using bolder color and looser brushstrokes.
Max Pechstein's Nidden paintings are considered to be of decisive influence on the development of his own style, and on German art at the time.
From 1933, Pechstein was vilified by the Nazis because of his art. A total of 326 of his paintings were removed from German museums. Sixteen of his works were displayed in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition in 1937. During this time, Pechstein went into seclusion in rural Pomerania.
Max Pechstein was a professor at the Berlin Academy for ten years before his dismissal by the Nazis in 1933. He was reinstated in 1945 and subsequently won numerous titles and awards for his work.
Pechstein was also a prolific printmaker, producing 421 lithographs, 315 woodcuts and linocuts, and 165 intaglio prints, mostly etchings.
He died in West Berlin. He is buried on the Evangelischer Friedhof Alt-Schmargendorf, in Berlin.
Hermann Max Pechstein
(1881-1955)
German Expressionist
Die Brucke
A person walking down a main sunlit road through a Nidden fishing village landscape, with trees and cottages
Estimated at approximately 1932.
Painting is still housed in the original era vintage frame
Measures approximately 16"HX 21.4"W; plus frame.
Nails hold the canvas to the wood stretcher bars
The painting has writing on the reverse, non-legible. (Possibly a title), upper left corner on the wood stretcher bars; starts start with "Die"; (writing is written in German). Possibly a notation to another member of the group. In large letters, old graphite/pencil appears to state "PECH". The painting has light writing along the lower edge; the writing has faded and is illegible. Due to the lack of a complete full signature, the painting is listed as an attribution to the artist.
The painting was lightly cleaned of old varnish. Some traces of old varnish lie within the paintbrush strokes. There is a light impression line along the top of the painting, which could be restored set on a board backing. There have been no previous overpaints, or restorations.
The painting is in very good condition. The lower left edge of the canvas is starting to separate from the wood stretcher frame. There are a few lines that are noticeable upon close inspection, from age. The paint is stable.
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