Lot Essay
Dr. Annegret Hoberg has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
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PROPERTY FROM THE SERGE AND VALLY SABARSKY COLLECTIONThroughout his long career, Kubin was fascinated by the melodramatic and macabre. His oeuvre is comprised of dark, fantastical creations and mystical representations of sex, death, and the beyond. Heavily influenced by the occult beliefs of Symbolist circles, Kubin synthesized popular motifs of his time with his own disturbing autobiography. The artist did not meet his father, a land surveyor for the monarchy, until age 2. As a young boy, he witnessed his mother’s death and was seduced by an older, pregnant woman. These events marred the artist’s life as a young adult. At 19, he tried to commit suicide on his mother’s grave; later, in the army, he had a nervous breakdown. In 1898, he moved to Munich to study art, however he soon abandoned his lessons at the Akademie der schönen Künste. Drawn towards writing and philosophy, Kubin studied the works of Friedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as the newly released The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. He read and illustrated Gogol, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Edgar Allan Poe. These writings offered countless points of departure for Kubin to investigate the agony of the human condition in his art. Christie’s is delighted to offer four exceptional works on paper by Kubin from the Serge and Vally Sabarsky collection. These works, created during his most anxious and productive period in which he often drew in spurts prompted by fevers and hallucinations, beautifully illustrate the artist’s interest in the exploration of contemporary society and the depths of the human psyche. They are exquisite examples of the artist’s refined draftsmanship; fine layers of ink and wash are applied to achieve a delicate texture within a highly detailed rendering. In these works, monsters, demons and mythical beasts roam free and humans abandon themselves to bestial impulses. Kubin’s fantastical and nightmarish visions of unimaginable and unprecedented scenes of hell and the end of humanity on Earth would soon become real on Europe’s battlefields. With his sensitive antennae, the artist was capable of translating these visions into iconic images that still speak to and disturb the viewer today. The present group of drawings, which rank among the highest quality of his oeuvre, are bold in subject and composition yet subtle and refined in technique.
Alfred Kubin (1877-1959)
Der letzte König
Details
Alfred Kubin (1877-1959)
Der letzte König
signed 'Kubin' (extreme lower right) and titled 'Der letzte König' (extreme lower left)
pen and brush and India ink, inkwash and pencil on paper
Image size: 9 ¾ x 7 in. (24.6 x 17.9 cm.)
Sheet size: 12 ¾ x 9 1/8 in. (32.2 x 23.1 cm.)
Der letzte König
signed 'Kubin' (extreme lower right) and titled 'Der letzte König' (extreme lower left)
pen and brush and India ink, inkwash and pencil on paper
Image size: 9 ¾ x 7 in. (24.6 x 17.9 cm.)
Sheet size: 12 ¾ x 9 1/8 in. (32.2 x 23.1 cm.)
Provenance
Galerie Pabst, Munich.
Acquired from the above by the late owners, November 1980.
Acquired from the above by the late owners, November 1980.
Literature
Exhibited
New York, Neue Galerie, From Klimt to Klee: Masterworks from the Serge Sabarsky Collection, October 2009-February 2010, p. 25, no. 2 (illustrated in color; dated circa 1902).
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Alternate Histories: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Galerie St. Etienne, January-April 2015.
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, The Art Dealer as Scholar, July-October 2019.
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, Alternate Histories: Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Galerie St. Etienne, January-April 2015.
New York, Galerie St. Etienne, The Art Dealer as Scholar, July-October 2019.
Brought to you by
Allegra Bettini