About the work

The view over the garden fence onto a small house surrounded by high bushes and trees appears to be flooded with colour and light. The deserted scenery is shone over by the large, low-lying sun, the backlight of which intensifies the contours of the forms with a lively effect. Karl Schmidt-Rottluff captured the special atmosphere of a September morning in the Taunus with loose brushwork and intensely brilliant colour contrasts. The painter had been a regular guest of the Frankfurt art dealer Hanna Bekker vom Rath in her house in Hofheim since the early 1930s. The Taunus landscape thus became a central source of inspiration for many paintings and watercolours, in which quiet, luxuriant nature provides the main element. This large-format sheet is one of the exemplary works of his late career, in which the more than 80-year-old artist continued to pursue the forces of nature with unabated joy in creation. In a manner typical of Schmidt-Rottluff’s painting of the 1950s and 60s, the stylised area forms of building and nature are emphasised with black, sharply broken contour lines and intensified to a powerful expression. The late summer landscape vibrates with the ecstasy of the colours. Vital expressiveness and a strong inner sentiment radiate from the watercolour of eminent quality.
(Andreas Gabelmann )