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Lot Essay
Hermann Gerlinger has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
‘The rhythm, the rustling of colours, that’s what always enthralls and occupies me.’
(Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 1907, quoted in U. Lorenz, Brücke, Cologne, 2008, p. 62)
Formerly on loan to the Brücke-Museum in Berlin, Winter is an outstanding early painting by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff from the first years of his involvement in Die Brücke. The painting depicts the Saxon Steel and Wind-turbine Factory in the Dresden suburb of Löbtau during the height of winter, but for Schmidt-Rottluff, the former architectural student who had only recently embarked on a career as a painter, it was not the architecture of this small former munitions factory in a worker’s suburb that drew his attention. Rather it was the vibrant play of colour and light upon both the factory’s form and upon his own feelings that evidently drew him to the subject. Closing in on the building so that its tower and wind turbine are cropped from view and the play of coloured shadows on its roof and sides fills the canvas, it is the dynamic energy of light and colour manifested by this otherwise ordinary building that forms the central subject of this work.
Painted in 1906, Winter is a work that reflects Schmidt-Rottluff’s aim of revealing what he called, ‘the silent life of things’. ‘Most pictures deal with things that happen,’ he said. ‘I always wanted to depict what is, the silent life of things’ (Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 1907, quoted in U. Lorenz, Brücke, Cologne, 2008, p. 38). Towards this end, Schmidt-Rottluff sought an art that dealt in the essence of nature as it is experienced by man. ‘Personally,’ he famously said, ‘I don’t have any programme, only an unaccountable longing to take hold of what I see and feel, and to find the most direct means of expression for such an experience. I only know that there are some things which cannot be grasped by either intellect or words’ (Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, ‘Das Neue Programm: Antwort auf eine Rundfrage über künstlerische Programme’, in Kunst und Künstler, vol. 12, Berlin, 1914, p. 308).
It had been in accordance with these values that Schmidt-Rottluff had joined Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Fritz Bleyl to form the ‘Brücke’ (Bridge) group of painters in Dresden in 1905. It was also Schmidt-Rottluff who gave the group its name, derived from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and reflective of these artists’ shared ideal that man was a ‘bridge’ of becoming, of potential and evolutionary possibility. As Heckel recalled, ‘Schmidt-Rottluff said we should call [ourselves] “Brücke”, [because] that was a many-layered word, and didn’t imply a programme, but in a sense implied going from one bank to the other. It was clear which bank we wanted to leave, but it was less certain where we wanted to end up’ (Erich Heckel, quoted in U. Lorenz, Brücke, Cologne, 2008, p. 8).
Founded in June 1905, much of the character and genesis of the art of Die Brücke during its first years was due to Schmidt-Rottluff’s pioneering example. Along with that of Emil Nolde, who was only an active member of the circle between 1906 and 1907, Schmidt-Rottluff’s work from these years is among the most dynamic and innovative of all the artists in the group. Influenced by the example of the French Impressionists, by Van Gogh and perhaps most profoundly by his friend, the older artist Emil Nolde, whose approach to painting was one of applying spontaneous intuition and emotional vigour, Schmidt-Rottluff, between 1905 and 1907, developed a highly raw style of painting that broke almost all the aesthetic boundaries of the period.
As a work like Winter exemplifies, Schmidt-Rottluff’s approach to his work was essentially one of vigorous intensity. Painting directly and swiftly onto a raw canvas or board, usually in the presence of his subject but without drawing, all contours and linearity remain deliberately absent from a work which is created purely by swirling brushstrokes of opaque colour and texture. There are no contours in nature, Schmidt-Rottluff boldly asserted at this time, so why paint any? In this way, and as a work like Winter clearly demonstrates, Schmidt-Rottluff was able to bestow even the most everyday of subjects with a dynamic sense of inner life; his shimmering dynamic brushstrokes seem to vibrate with the spectacular energy and vigour of life itself.
‘The rhythm, the rustling of colours, that’s what always enthralls and occupies me.’
(Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 1907, quoted in U. Lorenz, Brücke, Cologne, 2008, p. 62)
Formerly on loan to the Brücke-Museum in Berlin, Winter is an outstanding early painting by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff from the first years of his involvement in Die Brücke. The painting depicts the Saxon Steel and Wind-turbine Factory in the Dresden suburb of Löbtau during the height of winter, but for Schmidt-Rottluff, the former architectural student who had only recently embarked on a career as a painter, it was not the architecture of this small former munitions factory in a worker’s suburb that drew his attention. Rather it was the vibrant play of colour and light upon both the factory’s form and upon his own feelings that evidently drew him to the subject. Closing in on the building so that its tower and wind turbine are cropped from view and the play of coloured shadows on its roof and sides fills the canvas, it is the dynamic energy of light and colour manifested by this otherwise ordinary building that forms the central subject of this work.
Painted in 1906, Winter is a work that reflects Schmidt-Rottluff’s aim of revealing what he called, ‘the silent life of things’. ‘Most pictures deal with things that happen,’ he said. ‘I always wanted to depict what is, the silent life of things’ (Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 1907, quoted in U. Lorenz, Brücke, Cologne, 2008, p. 38). Towards this end, Schmidt-Rottluff sought an art that dealt in the essence of nature as it is experienced by man. ‘Personally,’ he famously said, ‘I don’t have any programme, only an unaccountable longing to take hold of what I see and feel, and to find the most direct means of expression for such an experience. I only know that there are some things which cannot be grasped by either intellect or words’ (Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, ‘Das Neue Programm: Antwort auf eine Rundfrage über künstlerische Programme’, in Kunst und Künstler, vol. 12, Berlin, 1914, p. 308).
It had been in accordance with these values that Schmidt-Rottluff had joined Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Fritz Bleyl to form the ‘Brücke’ (Bridge) group of painters in Dresden in 1905. It was also Schmidt-Rottluff who gave the group its name, derived from the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and reflective of these artists’ shared ideal that man was a ‘bridge’ of becoming, of potential and evolutionary possibility. As Heckel recalled, ‘Schmidt-Rottluff said we should call [ourselves] “Brücke”, [because] that was a many-layered word, and didn’t imply a programme, but in a sense implied going from one bank to the other. It was clear which bank we wanted to leave, but it was less certain where we wanted to end up’ (Erich Heckel, quoted in U. Lorenz, Brücke, Cologne, 2008, p. 8).
Founded in June 1905, much of the character and genesis of the art of Die Brücke during its first years was due to Schmidt-Rottluff’s pioneering example. Along with that of Emil Nolde, who was only an active member of the circle between 1906 and 1907, Schmidt-Rottluff’s work from these years is among the most dynamic and innovative of all the artists in the group. Influenced by the example of the French Impressionists, by Van Gogh and perhaps most profoundly by his friend, the older artist Emil Nolde, whose approach to painting was one of applying spontaneous intuition and emotional vigour, Schmidt-Rottluff, between 1905 and 1907, developed a highly raw style of painting that broke almost all the aesthetic boundaries of the period.
As a work like Winter exemplifies, Schmidt-Rottluff’s approach to his work was essentially one of vigorous intensity. Painting directly and swiftly onto a raw canvas or board, usually in the presence of his subject but without drawing, all contours and linearity remain deliberately absent from a work which is created purely by swirling brushstrokes of opaque colour and texture. There are no contours in nature, Schmidt-Rottluff boldly asserted at this time, so why paint any? In this way, and as a work like Winter clearly demonstrates, Schmidt-Rottluff was able to bestow even the most everyday of subjects with a dynamic sense of inner life; his shimmering dynamic brushstrokes seem to vibrate with the spectacular energy and vigour of life itself.