Karl Hauptmann
«The Feldberg Painter»
24th April 1880 – 7th April 1947
Karl Hauptmann was born on 25th of April in 1880 in Freiburg i.Br., Germany. He received his artistic training in Nürnberg and Munich and was thereafter engaged as a decorative painter.
In 1908 he produced the first of what were to be his typical Black Forest paintings. In the years between 1915 and 1919, he produced numerous images of the Alpine region he had visited during his deployment with the mountain infantry in the First World War.
In 1918 Karl Hauptmann purchased «Molerhüsli», which for him encompassed his dwelling, atelier, and exhibition space. It soon became a favourite meeting place for skiers, hikers, students, and visitors to Feldberg.
Due to Hauptmann’s ever-present health problems, his doctor prescribed a trip to Italy in 1940, to which he again travelled the following year.
On 7th of April in 1947, Karl Hauptmann died at the age of 67 at his «Molerhüsli».
Lit.: Exhibition Catalogue, Feldberg, 1993.
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3315
Winterauktionen 19.–20.11.2021
Hauptmann, Karl
1880
«Herzogenhorn (Feldberg)». Summit cross in winter twilight against a pink shimmering cloudy sky.
Oil on cardboard. Signed lower left. Verso titled by a different hand, numbered «9046», inscribed with the dimensions and with the stamp of the painting supplies shop Hch. Buff,
H 41,
The summit cross on the Herzogenhorn, not far from Karl Hauptmann's refuge, lovingly titled «Molerhüsli», appears several times in his œuvre, among others in a pencil drawing made in 1925 (WVZ Hötzel-Dickel Z25-1) or in an oil painting from 1936 (WVZ Hötzel-Dickel G36-1). The cross motif in the present work, which is almost dramatically exaggerated, follows the Romantic tradition of depicting a crucifix in a mysteriously transfigured mountain landscape, as is known, for example, from the legendary «Tetschener Altar», a major work by the grand master of Romantic painting, Caspar David Friedrich (1774 - 1840).
We would like to thank Dr. Ruth Hötzel-Dickel,
Provenance: private collection Rhineland.
Condition report