Ernst Hassebrauk

Ernst Hassebrauk 1905 Dresden – 1974 Dresden – “Inge in blauem Kleid” – (1958) Oil/canvas. 80 x 63 cm. 90 x 73 cm (dimensions with frame). Inscribed on the stretcher on the reverse. Frame. Slight paint loss in the lower left area and on the left edge. – Provenance: Private collection Hesse / Ketterer Kunst, Munich, auction on 12.6.2007, lot 19. – Catalogue raisonné: Hassebrauk No. 124. – Literature: Ernst Hassebrauk. 1905-1974, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Neue Meister, Dresden 1979 (with estate catalog) – Dieter Hoffmann, Ernst Hassebrauk. Leben und Werk, Stuttgart/Zürich 1981. Ernst Hassebrauk is one of the most important representatives of 20th-century Dresden painting. After studying in Dresden and Leipzig, among others with Carl Rade, Willi Geiger and Alois Kolb, he taught as a professor in Leipzig from 1947 to 1949 before returning to Dresden as a freelance artist. In confrontation with the Old Masters, especially Rembrandt and Frans Hals, and the expressive painting of Oskar Kokoschka, he developed an independent pictorial language. Even under the cultural-political conditions of the GDR, he maintained his artistic independence and remarkable coloristic freedom. The painting “Inge in blue dress”, created in 1958, illustrates Hassebrauk’s mastery as a portraitist and colorist. With spirited, impasto brushstrokes, he contrasts the radiant red of the hair with the cool blue-violet of the dress, accented by a red flower at the décolleté. While the background dissolves into agitated color fields, the calm, thoughtful expression of the sitter lends the portrait a special intensity. It is possible that the sitter is the Dresden artist Inge Thiess-Böttner (1924-2001), whom Hassebrauk had known personally since 1946 and who may have already been depicted in an etching titled “Inge with summer hat” around 1949. A definitive identification is still pending. The work exemplifies Hassebrauk’s unmistakable art, characterized by painterly freedom.

Estimate:$2,218.17

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