Paul STRECKER (Mayence 1900 – Berlin 1950) - The naked couple
Oil on canvas
81 x 100 cm
Signed lower left "Strecker".
On the back, on the stretcher, the label of Chantal Editions.
We would like to thank Mr. Gregor Wedekind for the information he kindly provided.
This work is listed under number WV-No.76 in the catalog raisonné prepared by Mr. Udo Braun in 1989.
This work will be included in the catalog raisonné currently being prepared by the Paul Strecker Foundation.
This work formerly belonged to Jeanne Philibert (Limoux 1898 - Rueil-la-Gadelière 1986), a French writer and editor. In her youth, she corresponded extensively with the poet Frédéric Mistral, who affectionately called her "Magali". Under this pseudonym, she met with success in 1927 with her book "Le Jardin enchanté", awarded the 1st Prix Max du Veuzit.
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During the Occupation, she took refuge in Toulouse and her publishing house (Editions Chantal) helped print documents for the Resistance.
In 1947, she moved to Rueil-la-Gadelière, near the painter Maurice de Vlaminck, with whom she became close friends. In 1954, she was awarded the French Resistance medal.
Provenance :
Former collection of the novelist Jeanne Philibert dite Magali (Édition Chantal)
Paul Strecker (born Hermann Strecker) was born in Mainz on August 13, 1898. He was the youngest of five children born to Elisabeth and Ludwig Strecker. From the age of 12, he took drawing and painting lessons. He was also interested in literature, music and theater. In 1915, he graduated from the Grand Ducal Gymnasium (now Rabanus-Maurus-Gymnasium) in Mainz. In 1918, he announced to his family that he did not want to join his father's company, the music publisher B. Schott's Söhne, but wanted to become a painter.
At the end of 1918, he moved to Munich, where he attended the private painting school of Moritz Heymann and Heinrich Knirr for a year. In August 1920, he obtained a place at the Academy of Fine Arts. At the instigation of Alfred Flechtheim, he moved to Berlin in April 1922. The gallery owner assured him of his support, and Strecker's works were soon exhibited by Cassirer and Flechtheim. Between 1923 and September 1924, Strecker made two study trips, the first to Italy and the second to Sanary-sur-Mer in France.
In September 1924, Paul Strecker settled in Paris, the center of his life for twenty years. He took part in the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon d'Automne. His travels took him to Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and regularly to Germany. In 1929, the Flechtheim gallery in Berlin and Düsseldorf presented for the first time a large collection of 24 of his works. During a stay in Mainz in 1932, Strecker exhibited 18 works at the Kurfürstliches Schloss castle. In Paris, Strecker frequented Christian Bérard's circle, and met Jean Cocteau, Eugène Berman, Pavel Tchelitchev, Julien Green, Céline, Suzanne Valadon, Maurice Utrillo, Kees van Dongen, Jules Pascin and Pablo Picasso.
In 1933, Strecker had his first solo exhibition in Paris, at Jean Bonjean's gallery, where Dior was his initial commercial partner. In 1934, art critic Waldemar George classified Strecker as a neo-romantic or neo-humanist. In 1937, this classification earned him an exhibition of his work at Julien Levy's gallery in New York. In April 1939, seventeen of his paintings were exhibited at the Petit Palais (1).
The work presented here is a masterpiece from his Paris period, very close to the pictorial universe of his friend Pavel Tchelitchew. It depicts a nude couple on a plank floor.
In www.paul-strecker.org
(1) Translation from www.paul-strecker.org
Estim. 6,000 - 8,000 EUR