Still life with bottles and fruit

Details

The artist mentions this painting in an unpublished letter dated 30 January 1960 from Rome to Richard Parrisius. Pasqualucci G 586.

Provenance:

Collection Otto Ehrich (1897-1988), Bavaria, acquired directly from the artist;

Karl & Faber, 28/29 June 1983, lot 1435;

Private collection, Bavaria, by inheritance to the present owner.

Description

Peiffer Watenphul’s “Still Life with Bottles and Fruit” shows an appealing arrangement of various bottles, summer fruits and a hanging bouquet of flowers (or a small lemon tree?) in summery shades of yellow, orange and green. Bright splashes of colour liven up the composition and emphasise the spontaneous, original character of the work, as does the coarse burlap used by the artist, with its partially visible vertical stitching.

The painting comes from the collection of the entrepreneur Otto Ehrlich, who was a friend of the artist Peiffer Watenphul and travelled with him on painting trips.

Ehrlich was born in the Prussian province of Posen. After leaving school, he served as a fighter pilot and flying instructor in the First World War. He then trained as a businessman as he was unable to study art for financial reasons. Ehrlich emigrated to Finland in 1936 and became a successful entrepreneur and ship owner. In 1944, he had to flee from the Russian army to Sweden and his businesses and private villa were confiscated by Russia. From 1948 to 1952, Ehrlich lived in Ascona, where he was finally able to devote himself to his passion for art and took painting lessons from Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. After spending time in Munich and Barcelona, he moved to Rome in 1957, where he became friends with the artist Peiffer Watenphul. The two travelled to Ischia and Terracina to paint together. Ehrlich moved to Tuscany in 1971 and then to the Allgäu in 1981, where he died in 1988.