Horst Janssen And Master Drawings by Artists of the Modern Period
Theobald Jennings Ltd Summer 2011
37 Albemarle Street London W1S 4JF +44 (0)20 76290629 info@theobaldjennings.com
Horst Janssen (1929 Hamburg – Oldenburg 1995) Theobald Jennings is proud to show for the first time a selection of works by the Hamburg artist Horst Janssen, and to hang them alongside drawings by Modern Masters from Rops and Cezanne to Grosz, Hubbuch and Kirchner. Janssen is widely regarded as one of the finest post-war German draftsmen. He is famous for his extraordinary Self-Portraits as well as his still-lives, landscapes and erotic works. All are equally important to this powerful character who grew up in war-torn Hamburg, who was orphaned and who offered his unique vision through his meticulous drawings and watercolours. His Bobethanien series, of which we have three, were executed in the 1990’s following his recovery from a dangerous fall. Janssen came to know the journalist Heidrun Bobeth and he created this extraordinary series of imaginary landscapes – his own curious Arcady which he named after her. Each of the watercolours is like its own visual poem of love. The gnarled and stunted trees combine with fresh growth, roots and spreading branches, colourful flashes of light interact with dark pools and storms. All the elements combine in this new creation which the viewer has a window into. Janssen has had many one-man shows in Museums across Germany, as well as in America, Austria, Japan and Norway. There is a room dedicated to the artist’s works in the Kunsthalle in Hamburg, as well as a Horst Janssen Museum in Oldenburg, Germany.
Horst Janssen Self-Portrait: Die Ayatollas sind los Pencil and coloured crayon on paper 1979 (11 03 79) Signed and titled 37.5 x 26 cms
Horst Janssen Bobethanien # 8 Pen and ink and watercolour, signed, dated and inscribed 1990 (10 11 90) 19.3 x 34 cms
Horst Janssen Bobethanien # 9 Pen and ink and watercolour, signed, dated and inscribed 1990 (13 12 90) 32 x 42.5 cm
Horst Janssen Bobethanien # 62 1990 ( 01 11 90) Pen and ink and watercolour, Signed with initials, dated and titled 37 x 52 cms
Horst Janssen Wasserm端hle Pen and ink and watercolour, signed and dated 1993 42 x 53.7 cms
Horst Janssen Sir Pencil and coloured crayon, on blue-grey paper, signed and titled 1974 52.7 x 33.4 cms
Horst Janssen Das ist ein schรถner Nachmittag 1979 (04 11 79) Pencil and coloured crayon on paper, signed and titled 32 x 22.7 cms
Horst Janssen Phyllis - In Erwartung – Orakel Pen and ink, pencil, watercolour and gouache, on brown paper 1977 43 x54 cms
Felicien Rops L’Oliverade 1876 Lead pencil on paper 36 x 25 cm Inscribed ‘L’Oliverade, Monte Carlo 76’ Felicien Rops was the leading draughtsman in Belgium at the end of the nineteenth century perhaps best remembered for his "Pornocrates" series of drawings. This drawing derives strongly from the work of the French realist painter Jean François Millet and his major work "Les Glaneuses". When Van Gogh was in the South of France he too was much influenced by Millet producing several works inspired by "Les Glaneuses". Unlike Van Gogh, Rops has reworked Millet's image with olive gatherers picking up wth windfalls in place of Millet's peasant women who were gathering the fallen ears of corn.
Paul Cezanne Femme endormie Circa 1870 Pencil and watercolour on paper 8 x 10.3 cm Exhibited: Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Classic Cezanne, 28 November 1998 – 28 February 1999, no.47, illustrated in colour
Karl Hubbuch (Karlsruhe 1891 – 1979 Karlsruhe) KÜrperstudie Black crayon on two horizontally joined sheets of wove paper 1926/28 Signed K.H with initials in pencil lower left Sheet size: 54 x 32.3 cm Exhibited: Karlsruhe, Badischer Kunstverein, 1981, Karl Hubbuch 1891-1979, catalogue no. 178, illustrated p.210 Hubbuch studied at the Karlsruhe Academy alongside Georg Scholz and Rudolf Schlichter. He continued his studies with Emil Orlik at the school of Arts and Crafts in Berlin where Grosz was a slightly older student. From 1914-1918 he was in military service and returned to Karlsruhe after the war first to study, then as a lithography instructor and finally as a professor and head of the Drawings department. In 1925 he exhibited several works in the Neue Sachlichkeit exhibition in Mannheim. Hubbuch is known for his many satirical drawings of this period. His fewer oils of the time are also strongly influenced by his drawing technique. Hubbuch was dismissed from his teaching post in 1933 and later forbidden to paint. After the war he resumed his post as professor and remained in Karlsruhe until his death in 1979.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) Der Strand von Fehmarn Medium. Pencil and watercolour, 1912, signed lower right in pencil, some soft creasing, other minor defects 34 x 27 cm Provenance: The artist’s estate, with the stamp verso Exhibitions: Dusseldorf 1960, Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 9th September – 30th October, cat. no 31, illustrated Bielefeld 1969, Kunstahalle, Kirchner aus Privatbesitz, cat no. 68, illustrated Kirchner was the leading member of the Brücke group, Germany’s most famous Expressionist artists, based first in Dresden then in Berlin. During Kirchner’s prime Berlin period, the artist spent the summers on the island of Fehmarn in the Baltic. Many of his most important landscape and beach subjects were created during this time, when the artist felt energized by his freedom away from the city. The present watercolour is similar to the painting Fehmarnküste (Fehmarn coast) in the Hessisches Landesmuseum in Darmstadt, Germany (Gordon 330). Similar watercolours are in the museum collections in Berlin, Bremen and Stuttgart (see L Grisebach, Kirchner, p.94). This drawing remained in the artist’s collection until his death in Switzerland in 1938.
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George Grosz (Berlin 1893-1959 Berlin) Standing female nude torso (verso: reclining female nude) Charcoal (verso: chalk) 1936 63.4 x 47.9 cm Provenance: The Estate of the artist Grosz was the son of an innkeeper in Berlin. After his father’s early death he was brought up by his mother who worked as a waitress in a Prussian officers’ club. He studied at the Academy in Dresden 1909-12 and 1912-14 at the School of Arts and Crafts in Berlin under Emil Orlik. In 1914 he volunteered for military service but was discharged. From 1916 he was heavily involved in the avant garde and antiestablishment movements in Berlin, collaborating with John Heartfield and exhibiting in the 1st International Dada Fair. He was a member of the left wing Rote Gruppe in Berlin and other revolutionary groups and was arrested and imprisoned on more than one occasion for blasphemy and insulting public morals with his ‘indecent’ drawings and writings. His works were included in the 1925 Neue Sachlichkeit exhibition in Mannheim. In 1933 he moved to America and in 1937 his works were seized by the authorities as degenerate. He returned to Berlin in 1959 where he died.