Sitzende Betty

细节

Georg Tappert (1880-1957)
Sitzende Betty
signed 'Tappert.' (upper left); signed, dated and inscribed '-Betty- G. Tappert 1913' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
40 5/8 x 42¾ in. (103.2 x 108.4 cm.)
Painted in 1913

来源

The artist's wife, until at least 1967.
Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, on loan, 1978-1991.
Private collection, Switzerland.
Anonymous sale, Villa Grisebach, Berlin, 30 May 2008, lot 26 (EUR 303,450).
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

出版

Berlinische Galerie (ed.), Bestände: Malerei, Skulptur, Graphik, Berlin, 1978, no. 381, p. 198 (illustrated p. 197).
'Verena Tafal: Die Vergessenen: Georg Tappert', in Art, Das Kunstmagazine, 1984, no. 8, p. 53 (illustrated).
G. Wietek, Georg Tappert, 1880-1957. Ein Wegbereiter der Deutschen Moderne, Munich, 1980, no. 148, p. 128 (illustrated p. 109).

展览

Berlin, Akademie der Künste, Georg Tappert 1880-1957, Gedächtnisausstellung, 1961, no. 37.
Berlin, Galerie Nierendorf, Georg Tappert, 1963-1964, no. 33, p. 8 (illustrated).
New York, Leonard Hutton Galleries, Georg Tappert, 1964.
The Hague, Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum, Zehn Maler des Expressionismus, August - October 1967, no. 86.
Berlin, Ausstellungshallen am Funkturm, Juryfreie Kunstausstellung, 1968.
Bonn, Bad Godesberg, Expressionismus in Berlin 1908-1930, 1970.
Hamburg, BAT-Haus, Georg Tappert. Gemälde 1906-1933. Wiederentdeckung eines Expressionisten, April - June 1977, no. 26 (illustrated).
Berlin, Berlinische Galerie, Georg Tappert. Einer Berliner Expressionist 1880-1957, 1980-1981, no. 17 (illustrated).
Schleswig, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Georg Tappert. Deutscher Expressionist, 2005, no. 34, p. 81 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum.

注意事项

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

荣誉呈献

Antoine Lebouteiller

alebouteiller@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2641

拍品专文

Sitzende Betty belongs to a series of works dedicated to 'Betty' which Georg Tappert executed between 1912 and 1913. Painted in 1913, the present picture portrays the generous form of the model. While her face remains turned away as though in thought, her body is revealed to the viewer in indulgent glory: voluptuous, rendered in creamy and dense colours, the body is depicted in a way that encourages the viewer to linger while looking at its forms.

In its style and colours, Sitzende Betty is reminiscent of Max Pechstein's pictures of nudes in natural settings. A founding member of the avant-garde group Die Brücke, Pechstein sought to recreate in his art a world not yet corrupted by civilization, perfect and harmonic in its communion with nature. Setting the nude in a green forest, in Sitzende Betty Tappert seems to be aspiring to a same ideal, elevating the female body to a symbol of purity, in unison with the natural world.

In 1910, when the Berlin Secession rejected works by young artists, including Tappert and Pechstein, the two painters led the foundation of the Neue Sezession, which provided a platform and forum for Expressionism and its ideas to prosper. In its bold colours and 'primitive' undertones, Sitzende Betty illustrates Tappert's development of its own Expressionist idiom.