Die Lastträgerinnen

Details

ARTHUR SEGAL (1875-1944)
Die Lastträgerinnen
signed 'A. Segal' (lower left); dated '1919.' (lower right)
oil on panel in the artist's original painted frame
24 x 27 3/8 in. (61 x 69.5 cm.) including the artist's painted frame
Painted in 1919

Provenance

Anonymous, Sotheby's, London, 4 December 1968, lot 209.
Private collection, North Germany, by whom acquired at the above sale.

Literature

H.W. Herzogenrath & P. Liška, Arthur Segal, Cologne, 1987, no. 206, p. 336 (illustrated fig. 33, p. 40).

Exhibited

Berlin, Fraenkel & Co. [Josef Altmann], Kollektivausstellung von Arthur Segal, January - February 1921, no. 11.
Cologne, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Arthur Segal, September - October 1987, no. 206, p. 336 (illustrated no. 33, p. 40); this exhibition later travelled to Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, November 1987 - January 1988; Regensburg, Museum Ostdeutsche Galerie, February - April 1988; and Ascona, Museo Comunale d'Arte Moderna, April - July 1988.
Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, German Expressionism 1915-1925: The Second Generation, October - December 1988, no. 181, p. 185 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Fort Worth, Modern Art Museum, February - April 1989; Dusseldorf, Kunstmuseum, May - July 1989; and Halle, Staatliche Galerie Moritzburg, August - September 1989.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Micol Flocchini Head of Day Sale

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Lot Essay

Born in Jassy, Romania, to Jewish parents, Arthur Segal started his student days in Berlin, before moving to Munich in 1896 and becoming a pupil of Schmid-Reutte and Hölzel. After travelling to the art capitals of Europe, Segal settled in 1904 in Berlin where he exhibited with Kirchner and the other Die Brücke artists. In 1920, Segal returned to Berlin, becoming a director of the Novembergruppe. After declining the offer of a teaching post at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Segal continued to develop his own distinct painting style of which Die Lastträgerinnen is a powerful example. In this work, Segal employs his quite unique approach of dividing the composition into equal fields that interact as single pieces of an entire puzzle, as well as individual and independent images. The flows of colour continue onto the artist's frame, with the palette carefully selected and arranged to provide a universal order. Acquired by the present collector in the 1960s, this rare, large-scale example by Segal has not been seen on the market until now.

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