Lot 316 D

The works diary made by Max Pechstein in the 1920s lists this painting in 1921 under the entry "XIV. Der Mühlengraben" (XIV. The Mill Stream), meaning that any former older titles or supposed dates (1918) made without knowledge of the artist's list stand corrected. The Roman numeral on the reverse of the canvas is a works number which Pechstein allocated to his pieces, but not always chronologically in the year they were made (cf. Aya Soika, Max Pechstein, Das Werkverzeichnis der Ölgemälde, vol. 1, p. 135).

In 1921 Pechsten's summer destination of choice became Leba, located on the Baltic coast in Pomerania, and replaced the more easterly Nidden on the Kurische Nehrung, which the artist had visited repeatedly since 1909. However, the artist first returned to Nidden after the interruption of the war. The works from the summer of 1919 were created as if in a reclaimed ecstasy of creative passion, and marked a new phase in Pechstein's artistic life: “Everything inside me is drowned in colours, my mind is filled with images and I am driven from place to place by new ideas for paintings” - he wrote in a letter to Paul Fechter (cited in: A. Soika, op. cit., vol. I, p. 38). The landscapes painted slightly later this summer in Leba, with their expansive, intensely colourful compositions are among the most impressive works created by Pechstein at this time. They are the mature compositions of a then 40 year old artist who was able to reclaim his former force of expression through a new beginning.

The present work “Mühlengraben”, which was formerly kept in the collection of Joseph Geller, Oberpfarrer of St. Kolumba in Cologne, is one of Pechstein's classic landscapes from this period. The symmetrical, axial composition rises up towards the steeply pointed silhouette of the so-called "Kleine Mühlengrabenbrücke" (Little Mill Stream Bridge) in Leba. The viewer's gaze is led over the calm, mirror-like surface of the water, upon which the trees lining the stream cast dark shadows. Flat meadows with red farmer's cottages bathed in summer light spread out to the right and left of the stream. The heightened, typically Expressionist palette of strong colours, here restricted to a carefully arranged composition of blue, green, yellow and red tones, becomes immediately noticeable. Individual forms are angular, chiselled and surrounded by dark contours in the manner of a woodcut. The forms of the landscape and vegetation are highly abstracted. The perspective centre of the image is condensed almost imperceptibly to a slanted rhombus, which captures and concentrates the viewer's gaze. This creates an exciting interplay of optical weight and formal closeness. A few details are repeated in a varied, rhythmic composition to either side of the centre: The rounded, curved forms of two dark blue rowing boats on the edge of the stream, the strongly contrasted dark and light stripes of colour, the accents of the smooth red architectural forms of the buildings to the right and left of the painting. The planes of the fore and mid ground are directed into the centre through prominent diagonals, which pick up on the orange and red tones and lead towards the bridge on the far horizon. One can almost feel the presence of the wide open sea in this space. For Pechstein, Pomerania was to become like a second homeland, filled with happiness.

“Following a contented, and artistically highly productive summer in Leba, the artist stated enthusiastically '… the new landscapes, the new people, I gorged myself upon them… I have the farmland, a far broader subject than in Nidden…' (cited in: A. Soika, Max Pechstein, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 73). “In early December 1921, the Berlin Kronprinzenpalais held an exhibition of 26 paintings by Pechstein, most of which were made in summer in Leba […] Max Osborn praised the presentation in the Vossische newspaper:
'The artist has spread out the fruit of the closing year before us, and there will be no one, there can be no one, who will not feel joyfully revitalised by the sensual power and richness, the strength and beauty of colour and the rhythm of the forms and values, founded in an opulent clarity, of these down-to-earth paintings.'” (from the German, Soika, ibid., p. 73)

A few years later, in 1932-1943, Pechstein's colleague Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, who was also a member of the “Brücke” group, was to discover the Baltic coast near Leba himself as an ideal artistic retreat.