WEISGERBER, ALBERT1878 St. Ingbert - 1915 Fromelles/Ypern


Title: Portrait of the Female Painter Alexandra Korsakoff (1884-1969).
Date: 1910.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 104.5 x 74cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower right: "Weisgerber / 10".
Frame: Framed.
Certificate:
Saskia Ishikawa-Franke, Otsushi 6th June 2022 is available as a copy.

Exhibitions:
"Robert Genin (1884-1941). Russischer Expressionist in München" Schloßmuseum Murnau 28th March - 30th June 2019.;
"Albert Weisgerber - Grenzgänger zwischen Tradition und Moderne" Museum Sankt Ingbert 2003.


Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany;
Auction Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg 9th June 2000;
Marianna Galston Paige-Zock (daughter of the depicted Alexandra Korsakoff-Galston).

"It is characteristic of Weisgerber to draw on an earlier pictorial idea. The 'Self-Portrait with Lady in Red' (1906), which only exists as a fragment, is clearly the model for the portrait 'Alexandra Korsakoff'. What both paintings have in common is the painter's studio interior, in which the sitters, who are each looking at the viewer, are depicted in half-length. The depicted each intersect in the same way with an indicated painting with a wide frame hanging at the top left. The composition of 1910 is simplified compared to that of 1906. There are no other works by the artist hanging on the wall anymore and no sheets of paper on the table. Weisgerber uses the surfaces of the wall and the table to paint over one another in finely nuanced gradations of colour, as he does in the later painting 'Sebastian with Blue Cloth' (1913). Here the painter successfully applied what he had studied with the Impressionists and Cézanne. This also applies to the painting in the picture, which is indicated in green and blue tones. (...) The immediacy of the depiction, the cropped composition, often found in Weisgerber's work, testify to his engagement with the French Impressionists. (...) In 1910, Weisgerber places the pink and red of the lining diagonally in the picture in a new and bold way, contrasting with the blue tones of the cloak. Together with the border patterns, the bold, free use of colour is reminiscent of Matisse. His engagement with the Fauves is also evident in other works by the painter. Weisgerber's struggle for surface and volume is evident in the portrait 'Alexandra Korsakoff'. Weisgerber accentuates Alexandra Korsakoff's head through his sculptural design and detailed, colourwise nuanced capture of the mental state of the depicted. The somewhat rigid position of her arms and hands corresponds to her stern face with accentuated eyebrows. Thoughtfulness and determination are expressed. The rest of the painting from 1910 focuses more on the design of lines and surfaces and the interplay of colours. Weisgerber succeeded in his struggle for unity of content, form and colour in this portrait from 1910. With regard to composition, colour and the penetration of the psyche of the depicted, this painting is one of the artist's best works." (Excerpt from the certificate by Saskia Ishikawa-Franke.)

We are grateful to Erwin Rehn, Nauroth, who confirmed the attribution of the painting on the basis of high-resolution image data. The work will be included in the new edition of the catalogue raisonné currently in preparation.