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拍品专文
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Max Pechstein's oils by Dr Aya Soika, commissioned by the Pechstein Estate.
In addition to a small number of self portraits and portraits of friends and acquaintances painted before 1917, after his discharge from the army in 1917 the psychologically charged portraits that reflect Pechstein's characteristic sensitivity to his sitter's personality, gaze, look and gesture, became a significant part of his oeuvre. Painted in 1919, Cellospieler, Bildnis Dr. Freundlich is probably the first of a series of oil portraits that Pechstein executed in 1919, 1923 and 1927 of his close friend, a celebrated astronomer who played a leading role in the initial development and presentation of Einstein's theory of relativity. Freundlich would later become the director of the Astrophysical Observatory at the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam before emigrating from Nazi Germany, eventually settling as a professor at the University of St Andrews. However at the time this portrait was painted, Freundlich was assisting Einstein and working on the design of the Einsteinturm in Potsdam collaboration with the celebrated architect Erich Mendelsohn, and he was also an accomplished cellist: indeed Freundlich and Einstein, who was an accomplished violinist, often played together (A. Soiyka, 'Im Kreis von Freunden, Max Pechstein und di Förderer seiner Kunst', in Gemeinsames Ziel und eigene Wege, Die "Brücke" und ihr Nachwirken, Almanach der Brücke, no. 1, Munich, 2010, p. 94).
A portrait of Freundlich from the same year shows the professor in full length within an interior, also playing the cello (Moeller, op. cit., no. 33; location unknown). The present work shows a closer view of the sitter, drawing attention to his intense gaze and attention to the music he is playing. Interestingly, in both paintings, Pechstein depicts the celebrated astronomer as a musician rather than a scientist, a clear indication of Pechstein's foremost interest in representing and defining the sitter in terms of his personality and psychology, rather than through the trappings of vocation and social status of traditional portraiture.
In addition to a small number of self portraits and portraits of friends and acquaintances painted before 1917, after his discharge from the army in 1917 the psychologically charged portraits that reflect Pechstein's characteristic sensitivity to his sitter's personality, gaze, look and gesture, became a significant part of his oeuvre. Painted in 1919, Cellospieler, Bildnis Dr. Freundlich is probably the first of a series of oil portraits that Pechstein executed in 1919, 1923 and 1927 of his close friend, a celebrated astronomer who played a leading role in the initial development and presentation of Einstein's theory of relativity. Freundlich would later become the director of the Astrophysical Observatory at the Albert Einstein Institute in Potsdam before emigrating from Nazi Germany, eventually settling as a professor at the University of St Andrews. However at the time this portrait was painted, Freundlich was assisting Einstein and working on the design of the Einsteinturm in Potsdam collaboration with the celebrated architect Erich Mendelsohn, and he was also an accomplished cellist: indeed Freundlich and Einstein, who was an accomplished violinist, often played together (A. Soiyka, 'Im Kreis von Freunden, Max Pechstein und di Förderer seiner Kunst', in Gemeinsames Ziel und eigene Wege, Die "Brücke" und ihr Nachwirken, Almanach der Brücke, no. 1, Munich, 2010, p. 94).
A portrait of Freundlich from the same year shows the professor in full length within an interior, also playing the cello (Moeller, op. cit., no. 33; location unknown). The present work shows a closer view of the sitter, drawing attention to his intense gaze and attention to the music he is playing. Interestingly, in both paintings, Pechstein depicts the celebrated astronomer as a musician rather than a scientist, a clear indication of Pechstein's foremost interest in representing and defining the sitter in terms of his personality and psychology, rather than through the trappings of vocation and social status of traditional portraiture.