Lot 4159

Description

Tempera/oil on canvas and hardboard, signed and dated on the lower right "Fritz Burmann 39". Masterful portrayal of a young female farmer on a hill looking longingly at the sea, in the background at left two female field workers in front of a hillscape and the sea. Dimensions 100 x 130 cm, previously rolled.With a contemporary (unsent) colour postcard of this painting from the series "Kunst für alle" ("Art for All") by the Munich publishing house Wiechmann.Fritz Burmann studied painting under Heinrich Repke 1906-1910, studied at the Düsseldorf Art Acadamy 1909-12, under history painter Henrich Nüttgens 1910-14, and finally under Heinrich Knirr in Munich. After various study trips he became a master student of August Deusser and founded the "Dreimann-Bund" with Werner Peiner and Richard Gessner. In 1926 he started to hold a master class as a professor at the Königsberg Art Academy, where Hubert Berke became one of his students in 1931/32, who was one of the most important representatives of lyrical informalism after the Second World War. Burmann became a member of the Prussian Art Academy in Berlin in 1933 and taught there as a professor from 1936 until his death.1939 the present painting " Looking Out at the Sea" found its way to the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung in Munich, where Adolf Hitler purchased it for 1,800 RM. In spite of this purchase other paintings by Burmann such as "Still Life with Cactuses" or "Old Woman" were confiscated as "degenerate art".Including a photocopy (the buyer of the painting will receive the original) of the transcript of the Haus der Deutschen Kunst dating from 22.12.1939, (tr.) "This letter is to inform you that on the occasion of a visit of our exhibition the Führer has purchased the follow work you exhibited: Looking Out at the Sea (oil, catalogue no. 124)."As Fritz Burmann had promised this painting to his good friend Prof. Dr. Hans Spiegel, he faced a dilemma after Hitler's purchase. The architect Spiegel and Burmann had met in Düsseldorf, shared an apartment and exhibited their works at the GeSoLei (Big Exhibition for Health Care, Social Welfare and Exercise in Düsseldorf), for which Burmann created the spandrel painting (tr.) "Architect and Builder" in the planetarium, and Spiegel presented his first prefrabricated house.Since Burmann did not want to disappoint his friend, he created a second, absolutely identical version of the painting "Looking Out at the Sea" (also known as "Longing"), but it remains unclear who received which version. As Hitler kept "his" painting until 14.10.1943 in the Haus der Kunst and had it transported to the salt mine Altaussee, it is possible that Burmann gave his friend Spiegel the painting from the GDK, in which case Hitler would have received Burmann's second work. After the war Hitler's painting was listed as "Girl at sea" and "Ankauf Reichskanzlei" in the Munich Collecting Point, and is now kept under the inventory number "Gm 98/113" in the collection "Haus der Deutschen Kunst" at the Deutsche Historische Museum in Berlin.
Provenance: Prof. Dr. Hans Spiegel (1893 - 1987), deutscher Architekt und Burgenforscher sowie enger Freund Fritz Burmanns. Dazu in Kopie (der Erwerber des Gemäldes erhält das Original) ein Schreiben der Schwiegertochter Hans Spiegels sowie der Artikel "Fritz Burmann, der Maler der ostpreußischen Haffs" von Bruno Kroll.
Condition: I - II Questions about the lot?