Lotte Laserstein (1898 Prussian-Holland - 1993 Kalmar/Sweden)
Male semi-nude, playing the flute
Painted in exile in Sweden in the late 1940s or 1950s, the painting radiates the cheerfulness of a Swedish summer through its motif - the young man with his faun-like, unclothed upper body - its pastel coloring, its style between realism and impressionism and its fast, broad brushstroke. After studying at the United State Schools, the assimilated Jewish painter quickly made a name for herself in the Berlin art scene from 1927, but her career came to an abrupt end when the Nazis came to power in 1933. In 1937, Laserstein was forced to emigrate to Sweden, where she remained for the rest of her life: it became a "divided life", as it was for many other artists and people expelled from Germany. Portraits remained a major focus of the painter's work, as well as numerous landscapes in her new Swedish homeland. It was not until 1985/86 that Laserstein's importance as one of the best portrait painters of the 20th century was rediscovered through a series of exhibitions. In 2018/19, the major retrospective "Lotte Laserstein - Face to Face" was shown at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt/M. and at the Berlinische Galerie, and a further retrospective "Lotte Laserstein: A Divided Life" (or "A shared life") is currently taking place in 2023/24 at the Moderna Museet Malmö and Moderna Museet Stockholm. Since 2010, the Nationalgalerie in Berlin has been in possession of the painting "Evening over Potsdam" from 1930, Laserstein's main work, which is the first painting to open the exhibition on modernism. In 2014, the Städelsches Kunstinstitut in Frankfurt was able to acquire Laserstein's painting "Frauen-Porträt" or "Russisches Mädchen mit Puderdose" (1928), with which the painter had entered the 1928 competition "Das best gemalte [or "schönste"] Frauenporträt des Jahres 1928"; at the time, it made it to the final round of 26 selected and exhibited paintings and was reproduced in "Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration". Oil on canvas; signed lower left; stamp of Malwarenhandel Beckers (in Stockholm) verso on stretcher. 46 cm x 42 cm. Frame.
Enclosed: Expertise by Dr. Anna-Carola Krausse, Berlin, February 2024.
We would like to thank Dr. Krausse for the scientific information on this work, which is registered in the Lotte-Laserstein-Archiv Krausse, Berlin, and will be included in the list of representative works from the Swedish years. Oil on canvas. Signed. Artist's suppliers stamp by Beckers (in Stockholm, Sweden) on the canvas stretcher. Accompanied by an expertise from Dr. Anna-Carola Krausse, Berlin, February 2024.
Estim. 14,000 - 28,000 EUR
