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Lot Essay
Campendonk studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Krefeld between 1905 and 1908. This was an academy which championed modernism against all else and Campendonk was a model student. By the age of 22 he had been identified by two of the greatest dealers of the period, Heinrich Thannhauser and Herwarth Walden, as a rising star of the avant-garde. Both exhibited him in their very earliest Expressionist shows: Thannhauser in his pivotal Der Blaue Reiter show in December 1911 and Walden in the Blaue Reiter exhibition at the Galerie Der Sturm in March 1912 in Berlin.
As a young man, Campendonk had befriended the artist father of August Macke and was invited to visit their home in Tegernsee near Munich where the impressionable artist fell under the spell of Macke and his inspirational patron, Bernhard Koehler who was to sponsor Paul Klee and August Macke's celebrated trip to Tunisia in 1914. Before he knew it Campendonk was exhibiting his vibrant oils and watercolours alongside Macke and Marc in the Neue Kunstlervereinigung exhibitions. By October 1911 Alfred Flechtheim had become his financial sponsor. Continued friendship led to inevitable sharing of themes and subjects and soon the group established the Blaue Reiter. By now their artistic styles were inseperable and perfectly complementary: their joint exhibitions, animated with images of leaping animals, gesturing figures and futurist landscapes were a huge success. And so the Blaue Reiter became as significant a movement in the early part of the twentieth century as any other, having a huge impact on the artists that followed.
Campendonk's greatest years of creativity are undoubtedly between 1912 and 1916. During this period he painted a wonderful body of dynamic paintings, notably many in gouache or watercolour, which are housed in museum collections today. Indeed no German Expressionist collection, nor any collection which aspires to describing the great movements of the early twentieth century is complete without a great Campendonk. Amongst the best are those like Pferde am See which depicts two anthropomorphic animal figures in a dynamic, fluid landscape. Like Franz Marc, Campendonk revelled in the harmonies and contrasts that the use of two figures in a composition could inspire. He was also perfectly aware of the vocabularies of the Cubists and the Italian Futurists. Like Marc, he adored strong contrasting colours and would suffuse his best compositions with countless planes of complementary colours. Here, for example, the gouache bursts with colour. This coupled with the modernity of his line belies the fact that the gouache was executed early in the last century.
Firmenich gives Pferde am See an execution date of circa 1915. Judging by the monumentality of the horses and the sureness of his radiant lines, it seems likely that the work comes from early 1915 relating as it does colouristically and stylistically to such works as Circus of 1913 (F.392), now in a private German collection, or the Radfahrer E mit Kleiner gelber Kuh of 1914 (F.481) in the Kunstverein Emmerich Märkisches Museum Witten. Both of these are gouache on paper and it should be noted that in 1914 and 1915 Campendonk is as accomplished when working in watercolour and gouache as he is when working in oils. In his catalogue raisonné, Andrea Firmenich goes as far as to argue that Campendonk's works on paper, and particularly his gouaches, have far greater intensity and strength.
Pferde am See originally belonged to the young artist Walter Dexel. Campendonk and Dexel shared a two-man show at Herwarth Walden's Galerie Der Sturm in 1918 and it seems likely that Dexel received the work in exchange or as a gift from his 29 year old friend. Thereafter the work stayed in the Dexel family for the best part of 75 years.
After being chosen for exhibition in Walden's celebratory retrospective show at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1961, the present work was last shown at the home of the Blaue Reiter movement, the Lenbachhaus in Munich in the autumn of 1989. It survives in remarkably fresh and fine condition.
As a young man, Campendonk had befriended the artist father of August Macke and was invited to visit their home in Tegernsee near Munich where the impressionable artist fell under the spell of Macke and his inspirational patron, Bernhard Koehler who was to sponsor Paul Klee and August Macke's celebrated trip to Tunisia in 1914. Before he knew it Campendonk was exhibiting his vibrant oils and watercolours alongside Macke and Marc in the Neue Kunstlervereinigung exhibitions. By October 1911 Alfred Flechtheim had become his financial sponsor. Continued friendship led to inevitable sharing of themes and subjects and soon the group established the Blaue Reiter. By now their artistic styles were inseperable and perfectly complementary: their joint exhibitions, animated with images of leaping animals, gesturing figures and futurist landscapes were a huge success. And so the Blaue Reiter became as significant a movement in the early part of the twentieth century as any other, having a huge impact on the artists that followed.
Campendonk's greatest years of creativity are undoubtedly between 1912 and 1916. During this period he painted a wonderful body of dynamic paintings, notably many in gouache or watercolour, which are housed in museum collections today. Indeed no German Expressionist collection, nor any collection which aspires to describing the great movements of the early twentieth century is complete without a great Campendonk. Amongst the best are those like Pferde am See which depicts two anthropomorphic animal figures in a dynamic, fluid landscape. Like Franz Marc, Campendonk revelled in the harmonies and contrasts that the use of two figures in a composition could inspire. He was also perfectly aware of the vocabularies of the Cubists and the Italian Futurists. Like Marc, he adored strong contrasting colours and would suffuse his best compositions with countless planes of complementary colours. Here, for example, the gouache bursts with colour. This coupled with the modernity of his line belies the fact that the gouache was executed early in the last century.
Firmenich gives Pferde am See an execution date of circa 1915. Judging by the monumentality of the horses and the sureness of his radiant lines, it seems likely that the work comes from early 1915 relating as it does colouristically and stylistically to such works as Circus of 1913 (F.392), now in a private German collection, or the Radfahrer E mit Kleiner gelber Kuh of 1914 (F.481) in the Kunstverein Emmerich Märkisches Museum Witten. Both of these are gouache on paper and it should be noted that in 1914 and 1915 Campendonk is as accomplished when working in watercolour and gouache as he is when working in oils. In his catalogue raisonné, Andrea Firmenich goes as far as to argue that Campendonk's works on paper, and particularly his gouaches, have far greater intensity and strength.
Pferde am See originally belonged to the young artist Walter Dexel. Campendonk and Dexel shared a two-man show at Herwarth Walden's Galerie Der Sturm in 1918 and it seems likely that Dexel received the work in exchange or as a gift from his 29 year old friend. Thereafter the work stayed in the Dexel family for the best part of 75 years.
After being chosen for exhibition in Walden's celebratory retrospective show at the Nationalgalerie in Berlin in 1961, the present work was last shown at the home of the Blaue Reiter movement, the Lenbachhaus in Munich in the autumn of 1989. It survives in remarkably fresh and fine condition.