Black India ink and gouache on firm drawing paper 62.6 x 49.3 cm, framed. Signed and dated P.A. Böckstiegel 1920 in pencil upper right. - On verso inscribed by an unknown hand "Vater Reiking" with blue chalk lower left and "Bauer auf Arrode" (Farmer in Arrode) und "Bauer" in pencil below. - With thumbtack traces. - The lower and right margin each with a short tear; the lower margin with traces of folding.
"Vater Reiking" was a neighboring farmer in Böckstiegel's native Arrode, Westfalia, whom he portrayed in a colour woodcut after the First World War; this impression is very closely related to the gouache offered here. (See Thomas Matuszak, Peter August Böckstiegel, Das druckgraphische Werk, Düsseldorf 1998, nr. 90 with colour ill. p. 46, "Erzählender Bauer" - head and raised forefinger here turned to right). Also in the painting "Das Wort" (The Word; Wedel 86), dated 1920, the speaking expression turned to the viewer and the teaching gesture are similarly formulated.
Certificate
We would like to thank Dr. Vita von Wedel, the author of the catalogue raisonné, for kind confirmation; the sheet will be included in the planned supplement of the catalogue raisonné of pastels, watercolours and drawings by Peter August Böckstiegel.
Provenance
Private possession, Northern Germany, acquired from the estate of the artist