Hermann Max Pechstein
Landschaft
1919
India ink drawing and watercolour on postcard. Verso: message to Eduard Plietzsch 9.9 x 13.9 cm Framed under glass (double sided). Monogrammed 'HMP' (joined) in black ink verso and with a postmark 'Ratzeburg 26.5.19'. - The colours slightly faded. The upper two corners with minimal fold traces. Minor, superficial paper defects verso in left and lower margin.
In 1919, Max Pechstein spent 2 weeks during an evidently “splendid” spring in Buchholz, near Ratzeburg, of which not only the brightly blossoming trees of the North German landscape on the recto of our postcard bear witness. Towards the end of his stay from mid to late May, he dedicates a few short lines to his friend Eduard Plietzsch, obviously already anticipating their next meeting in Berlin.
Max Pechstein and the five-year younger art historian were very close during their entire lives and maintained a lively correspondence. As from 1910, Plietzsch was assistant to director Wilhelm Bode at the Collection of Paintings at the Königliche, now Staatliche Museen Berlin. In 1919, he married the art historian Mica Luckau, whom Pechtsein was to portray in a large-scale format two years later.
Provenance
Dr Maria Lex Collection (Berlin); in familiy possession since, Rhineland