Georg Tappert Lot n° 65

George Tappert Portrait Karl Jakob Hirsch Around 1917 Oil on canvas (doubled). 76,4 x 59,2 cm. Framed. Signed 'Tappert' lower right. - Frame-related rubbing at the edges of the picture, otherwise in impeccable, freshly colored condition. Wietek 180 Provenance Annalise Tappert, Berlin (until 1967); private property Switzerland; private collection Hamburg Exhibitions Berlin 1918 (Galerie Buchkunst Axel Juncker), Georg Tappert. Paintings and Prints; Kassel 1959 (Kunstverein), Georg Tappert Memorial Exhibition, cat. No. 25; Berlin 1961 (Akademie der Künste), Georg Tappert 1880-1957, cat. No. 41; Hagen 1967 (Karl Ernst Osthaus Museum), Zur Erinnerung - 10 Maler des Expressionismus, cat. No. 87; Berlin 1980/81 (Berlinische Galerie), Georg Tappert. A Berlin Expressionist 1880-1957, cat. No. 22 (with reverse label); Schleswig/Nuremberg 2005 (Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum/Germanisches Nationalmuseum), Georg Tappert. German Expressionist, cat. No. 46 Literature Gerhard Wietek, Georg Tappert 1880-1957. A Pioneer of German Modernism, Munich 1980, p. 44 Georg Tappert's haunting portrait shows the painter and writer Karl Jakob Hirsch (1892 - 1952). Born in Hanover into a middle-class family open to the arts, Hirsch initially aspired to a career as a pianist before the partial amputation of his right index finger forced him to orient himself toward the graphic arts, painting and writing. With this in mind, he attended the Hanover School of Applied Arts and then studied painting in Munich and Berlin. There Hirsch became friends with Franz Pfemfert, for whose socialist magazine "Die Aktion" he contributed prints and texts. From 1918 he worked as an "artistic advisor" for the Berlin Volksbühne, designing stage sets and costumes. During this time he also met Georg Tappert, who taught him how to draw, and with whom he served in the air force in Adlershof during World War I. The two artists had a friendly relationship. The two artists had a friendly relationship. Tappert showed his student and friend in a fiery red armchair against a bright yellow background, against which the figure, dressed in a dark suit, stands out vividly. With an eye to the intellectuality and versatile talents of the painter and author, he interpreted him with a strikingly large head, strong glasses and a mouth open as if to speak. At the same time, he emphasized the delicate hands of the incapacitated pianist. In 1925 Hirsch switched from the visual arts to literature, wrote music, art and literary criticism, and in 1931 the novel "Kaiserwetter", which was published by S. Fischer Verlag and brought him great success. He recognized the danger of National Socialism early on, so he emigrated to the United States via Switzerland in 1934.