Lot 398 D

Oil on canvas, painted both sides 78.3 x 98.6 cm, framed. Signed 'W.Gilles' lower right. - Good original condition. The 'Schiff' (Ship) with tiny, inconspicuous losses of colour. The 'Milchstraße' (Milky Way) partly with craqueleur.

Schwengers G 76

Provenance
Galerie Vömel, Düsseldorf (1982); private collection, Rhineland

Exhibition
Düsseldorf 1975 (Galerie Vömel), Werner Gilles, cat. no. 5 with illus.

Literature
Alfred Hentzen, Werner Gilles, Cologne 1960, illus. 19; Marlis Schwengers, Werner Gilles (1894-1961), Stilistische und ikonographische Studien zu seinem Werk. Mit einem Verzeichnis der Druckgraphik, Cologne 1985, p. 45 et seq., 184 et seq.; Beate Reese, Zum Werk von Werner Gilles, in exhib. cat. Träumender und Sehender Werner Gilles 1894 - 1961, Kunstmuseum Mülheim an der Ruhr (Ed.) 2011, p. 12 f. with colour illus.

In the spring of 1927, Werner Gilles stayed not only in Paris, but also in the fishing town Le Brusc on the Cote d' Azur, where he may have painted 'Schiff' (Ship). The appealing use of vivid, autonomous colours speaks for the influence of the Fauves. It is no longer possible to distinguish between land, water and sky. Gilles has created a space without perspective, where only colour and the rhythm of movement prevail. However, it was probably not only the Fauves who influenced Gilles, but also the intense light conditions of the Mediterranean coast which inspired this rage of colour.

The highly unusual depiction on the reverse with the strange title “Milchstraße” (Milky Way) appears detached from reality and more akin to the world of dreams, fantasy and the artist's imagination. A nude, corpulent lady lays posed on a sofa crowned by a large shell, opposite a likewise barely clothed man whose face is obscured by a mask - this is assumed to be a self portrait of the artist. Above the sofa is a white bank of clouds with a row of sheep. The scene appears both humorous and cryptic. Marlis Schwengers-Zilkens suggests that the painting could have been made in connection with Charles Baudelaire's "Les Fleurs du Mal". Gilles was quite at home in French Symbolist literature, and could well have allowed this knowledge to influence his painting (cf. Marlis Schwengers, Werner Gilles. Stilistische und ikonographische Studien zu seinem Werk. Mit einem Verzeichnis der Druckgraphik, Cologne 1985, p. 44, 45). The white line, the milky way, stands in stark contrast to the earthy tones of the space and figure. The effect of this captivating image contrasts between naivety and contemporary drama.