“Damenbildnis” (in front of the Pont des Arts in Paris)

Details

Provenance:

Studio of the artist, Düsseldorf-Lohhausen, on the reverse with two handwritten addresses of the artist;

Fischer Kunsthandel & Edition, Berlin, on the reverse with the label;

Gallery Thomas Schneider, Munich;

Private collection, Europe, acquired from the aforementioned in 2012.

Description

– Paintings from Werner Schramm’s time in Paris

– The artist is part of the group “Das Junge Rheinland” and also works as a stage designer

– Painted in Schramm’s typical style based on historical models

Werner Schramm paints the portrait of an unknown lady against a Parisian backdrop in an almost old-masterly manner. The old mastery is both technical and compositional. In his works, Schramm uses a technique that has come down to us from early modern artists: he models the finest layers with a triad of oil paints, oil-based tempera and resin glazes. The depiction itself also appears to be rooted in the tradition of his artistic predecessors. The sitter poses in high-quality clothing – fur, gold jewellery, detailed gloves and a fashionable hat – with her arms folded. In terms of the painting style and the controlled posing of the sitter, it can almost be considered a modern counterpart to a work from this auction season from the Old Masters: Lot 5 (324th auction) is Barthel Beham’s portrait of Dorothea Jörg; like this work, Schramm also shows his sitter in contemporary elegant clothing and finely finished.

Schramm shows her in front of an unclear background, as we can see the Pont des Arts, the Pont Neuf and behind it the Ile de la Cité in Paris – but the sitter is standing in front of an iron grid, which should be in the middle of the Seine. This location, which makes the background look like a backdrop, also takes us back to the portrait tradition of past times, in which the background is used as a distinguishing feature, but does not have to correspond to the reality of the painting production process – after all, this took place in the studio.

Werner Schramm, whose art is located here in the art history of portrait painting in three ways, was actually not an unconditional traditionalist in the period up to 1933. On the contrary! He belonged to the left-wing avant-garde group “Das Junge Rheinland” and was in contact with greats of the art (market) scene such as Alfred Flechtheim and Mutter Ey. He painted the picture on offer while in Paris with his wife, the artist Liselotte Schramm-Heckmann. This stay of several years had been preceded by a longer period in Florence. In 1931, one year after creating the portrait of a lady shown here, the Schramms moved back to Düsseldorf.