Lot 311 Dα

Oil on rough burlap, painted on both sides 49.7 x 66 cm (verso 70 x 54 cm), framed. - In good condition. With applied canvas to the margins and some inconspicuous retouches. Few very minor losses of colour.

Hülsewig-Johnen/Reipschläger 85 and 97; Gmelin G85 and G96

We would like to thank Hermann-Josef Bunte, Bielefeld, for his kind support.

Provenance
The artist's estate; Erich Stenner, Bielefeld; private possession, Bielefeld; private possession, Rhineland

Exhibition
Bielefeld/Stuttgart 1956 (Städtisches Kunsthaus Bielefeld/Württembergischer Kunstverein), Hermann Stenner 1891-1914, cat. no. 56, no. 111

Literature
Gustav Vriesen, Der Maler Hermann Stenner, in: periodical "Westfalen", vol. 35, 1957, issue 3, p. 157, 158, illus. 84; Paul Pieper, Das Westfälische in Malerei und Plastik, Aschendorf/Münster 1964, p. 91, illus. 66; Hans Georg Gmelin, Hermann Stenner 1891-1914, ed. by Alfred Hagenlocher, Schriftenreihe der Hans-Thoma-Gesellschaft, Reutlingen-München 1975, p. 31, illus. 93 & p. 37, illus. 96; Jutta Hülsewig-Johnen, Christiane Reipschläger, Hermann Stenner, Werkverzeichnis der Gemälde, Bielefeld 2003, p. 108 and p. 125 colour illus.; Karin von Maur (ed.), Hermann Stenner. Von Bielefeld nach Meersburg - Ein Maler an der Schwelle zur Moderne, exhib. cat. Schloss Achberg 2007, p. 59; Karin v. Maur/ Markus Pöhlmann, Der Maler Hermann Stenner im Spiegel seiner Korrespondenz, Briefe 1909-1914, Munich 2006, with colour illus. on the cover

In the spring of 1910 Stenner was accepted to the Stuttgart academy of art in order to dedicate himself to the study of painting there. As early as 1912 Adolf Hölzel, whose composition class Stenner had been attending since the previous year, provided him with a house on the grounds of the palace park to serve him as a master's studio - a great honour for the artist, who was barely 21 at the time.
This landscape, captivating on account of its curvilinear application of line, was presumably created during a longer excursion of Hölzel's class to the Eifel region or to the town of Monschau. The emphatically two-dimensional linear structure, mellowed by means of naturalistic elements, suggests that the artist was more concerned with creating a well-balanced, harmonious composition than an effect of three-dimensional depth. Compared to the self-portrait on the reverse side, the tonality of this landscape is fairly reserved, although the red-violet paths cause the golden glistening fields of grain between them to shine evocatively.
While the expressive self-portrait displays study-like aspects, it nonetheless possesses great evocative power - precisely on account of the rapid strokes, the coarse texture of the canvas and the reduction to the intensive basic colours of blue, yellow, green and red. Above all, the yellow flesh tones form a luminous contrast to the colours surrounding them. This extremely decisive and emphatic manner of painting, full of spontaneity, surely corresponded closely to the temperament of the young, emerging painter, who depicts himself here in a self-confident pose, suggestive of a mondaine character.