Auction Watercolor Finds

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Monogrammist LK: Verkiebtes Paar aus Schubertzeit (ca. 1900-1901)

K. Hajek - Wiener Sanger Knabe .. ca, 1918

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I had a chance to wonder through the watercolor sections of the European eBay sites and pulled out a few accomplished works (at least I thought they were accomplished). Academic nudes in this medium are few and far between so I had to settle for mostly landscapes with a few figurative works. There are a couple of gouache (above) included. I have included two WW II illustrations mainly because of the action and accomplished drawing. When I get a chance I may re-post the few academic nudes in my collection just to illustrate that academic nudes do exist in the watercolor medium.
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Julius Paul Junghanns (1876-1958) Bauer mit Pferdefuhrwerk

J. Weinhauser - Landscape -1904

Gunter Bieling - War Scenes - May 1944

Erhart Amadeus Dier - Battle Scene

Friedrich Frank (1890-1939)

Edward Harrison Comptom (1881-1960) Pontresina

Fritz Lach (1868-1933) Wiener Karlskirche

(?) Diefenbach - Untitled - 1892

Monogrammist W.H. - Untitled

And Now For A Little Something Completely Different: Genre and Figurative Works at Auction

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The European auction season is just barely starting to pick up again and I thought I would treat you to some figurative, landscape, and genre scene gems I have come across. Some are just studies but most are competently finished works. If you have been following this blog for any length of time, then you know I am a sucker for fancy brushwork, comprehensive and accomplished use of color in paint application, and pure old fashioned competent, detailed draftsmanship. Well I think the below listed 19th century works at auction would qualify for some of these characteristics. I will readily admit I have always struggled with color and when I see a master hand at work I can just sit there for hours putting all the color pieces together, marveling at how just a dash and a swipe here and there can transcend mere paint on canvas into something alive. I might even "appropriate" a color palette for myself if I run across one I like. And, hang in there, I have some beautiful watercolors I want to throw at you next. Enjoy....
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Peter Strahn ... Shepherd

Peter Strahn - Boy with Two Goats

Kunz Meyer-Walde - Untitled

Late 19th century oil on board, Portrait of a Nun

Hermann Angermeyer-Harburg (1876-1955) In The Studio

Otto Heinrich (1891-1967) Lastkahn unter Brucke

H Rogner (?) Knight on Horseback

Godard (?) Untitled Study

Georg Frederich Berlin (1868-1943) Portrait of a Boy

Eugen Felix Prosper Bracht-Morges (1842-1921) Italian Landscape

Unknown Artist, Young Woman, ca. 1900

Albert Sorkau (1874-1956)Miniature Symbolist Study for Apollon and Psychee

Herbert Grass (1886-1978): Zwei Akte im Tulpenfeld (Two Nudes in a Tulip Field)

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Henry's Auktionshaus, GmbH, Mutterstadt, DE has recently listed this beautiful nude study in their current auction catalog. The original illustration on line showed some damage to the paint, with scratches and missing paint, so I did a scratch removal and cleaned it up, somewhat back to its original look. Herbert Grass (1886-1978) was a painter and graphic artist who studied at the Akademie of Fine Arts in Leipzig at the turn of the last century.
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Caption: Zwei Akte im Tulpenfeld .......... (Two Nudes in a Tulip Field)
Artist: Herbert Grass (1886-1978)
Material: Oils on Cardboard (51 by 69 cm)
Dated: Signed and dated 1912




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Here are two examples of his graphic works:
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George Minne (1866-1941): Bronze Edition of "Adolescent I" (Nude Male Youth)

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(Photograph of the Artist: Second from the left)

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A Berlin Gallery has recently listed a bronze edition of George Minne's "Adolescent I" on eBay Germany. The asking price is in the five figure range so that puts me at the back of the bus. George Mimme (1866-1941) was a very well listed Belgian sculptor who was famous for his Symbolist monumental works. He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent and then at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He established his own bronze foundry in 1910. His most famous works were a series of kneeling youths and the marble sculpture of the below subject, which I believe is in the Getty Museum. Like other Symbolist's, he favored exploring human spiritual life and inner conflict. He studied architecture before going on to painting and sculpture. Minne's works overall contain a surprisingly few motifs which he explored over and over.

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Here are just a very few of the many examples of his works:

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Artur Volkmann (1851-1941): Pen and Ink Drawing - Nude Men on Horseback , 1900

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A seller on eBay Germany has posted this pen and ink drawing by Artur Volkmann (1851-1941). When I first pulled the eBay page up, I sat here scratching my head as what the subject matter might have been then I noticed the name of the artist. Volkmann is known for his male nudes and equestrian subject matter, his most famous (below) "Youth and Horse." He began his career under the tutelage of Ernst Julius Hahnel in sculpture at the Dresden Art academy from 1868 to 1873. A lot of his works involved harmonizing ideas of the ancient world and panentheism (God-is-in-everything). No doubt he was well rounded in drawing, the graphic arts, painting, and sculpture.
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Samples of Volkmann's works:

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Youth and Horse

Novel

Pan with goats

Book Review: Alla Prima by Richard Schmid

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Title: Alla Prima, Everything I Know About Painting
Author: Richard Schmid
Publisher: Stove Prairie Press, LLC
South Burlington, VT
ISBN: 0-9662117-3-1
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In the last post I threw out a painting term, all prima, that brought to mind one of my favorite painting instruction books: Alla Prima by Richard Schmid. Alla prima or au premier coup means "direct painting" or "painting from life." Alla prima is, according to Schmid, the ultimate in representational art because it is "about real experience and demands the highest level of skill." (Apply this to 19th century academic training and you have the very definition of "the Academie."). If you would like to learn more about all prima painting techniques, then I highly recommend this book. Schmidt covers the entire subject matter in terms of his own experience and passes along some very valuable lessions without making them "rules" to live by. The volume is a bit on the expensive side but worth the investment. Available from Amazon.com.

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Here are just a few of the many color illustrations in this book:
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