ALFRED BASEL (Wien 1876 - 1920 Türnitz) Lot n° 33

ALFRED BASEL (Vienna 1876 - 1920 Tuernitz) Russian attack lithography/paper, 55 x 57,5 cm signed im Druck Alfred Basel, titled Russenangriff gegen oest. ung Stellungen beim Dukla-Pass 1915. ESTIMATE °€ 50 - 100 STARTING PRICE °€ 50 Alfred Basel, painter and engraver, was the son of a factory owner and studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts under Felician von Myrbach. He undertook study trips to Italy and Germany. Basel was a reserve officer and served as a lieutenant at the front until March 1915. In the autumn of 1915 he was decommissioned due to illness and considered unfit for military service. In December he was employed as a war painter in the k.u.k. War Press Quarters included. Basel experienced his artistic breakthrough as a war painter, apart from the art exhibitions of the war press quarters, he only exhibited for the first time in 1919 in the winter exhibition of the Vienna Künstlerhaus. Basel tried to reproduce his impressions of the war accurately and in great detail. This concept is reminiscent of Oskar Laske, with whom Basel has both biographical and stylistic similarities. Like Laske, Basel dispenses with any sensationalism or pathetic exaggeration and shows approaches to small-figure mass scenes. However, his painting, which is characterized by extreme simplicity, remains merely a description that approaches photographic accuracy. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.