Lachnit, Wilhelm (1899 Gittersee/Dresden - 1962 Dresden)

Lot 2034 limit € 9.500

Glaze painting in tempera and oil/plywood, "Portrait Leni", three-quarter view of a young woman in a red wool coat in front of a wide landscape, signed "W. Lachnit" and dated (19)27 at the top right, exhibition label "Deutsche Kunst Düsseldorf 1928, 1534" on the reverse as well as Handwritten note "Portrait Leni", painting professionally cleaned and frame renewed, approx. 100 x 79.5 cm, with frame approx. 108 x 86.5 cm. Wilhelm Lachnit began his artistic training in 1914-18 with an apprenticeship as a sign painter and studied at the Dresden Academy from 1920-23. His acquaintance with Otto Dix, also a student and later a professor at the Dresden Academy, had a clear influence on his artistic work. Lachnit mainly produces figurative representations and portraits, which are bought by the Moscow collections and the Dresden Picture Gallery, among others. In 1924 he joined the KPD and founded the "New Group" together with Hans Grundig, Otto Griebel and Fritz Skade. In 1929 he was a co-founder of the "Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists (ASSO)", in 1930 he was a member of the Dresden group "Aktion". of the "New Dresden Secession 1932". In 1933, parts of his work were confiscated as "degenerate art", Lachnit was arrested and was then only able to work to a limited extent . Lit.: "Refuge and melancholy. Wilhelm Lachnit. Painting", edited by S. Walther and G. Porstmann, exhibition cat. Städtische Galerien Dresden 2012 as well as "Neue Sachlichkeit in Dresden. Paintings from the 1920s from Dix to Querner", edited by B. Dalbajewa, Dresden 2011. From May to October 1928 the exhibition "German Art - Düsseldorf 1928" took place in Düsseldorf, for which the exhibition management had set itself the goal of " to bring together the best living art of Germany, German-Austria and German-speaking Switzerland, insofar as it was considered significant by her - and could be obtained". Portrait Leni" (cf. the exhibition catalog Düsseldorf 1928, 2nd edition). The portrayed "Leni" is most likely the 20-year-old Helene Tischer, Wilhelm Lachnit's future sister-in-law, married to his brother, the artist Max Lachnit.In the composition of the picture and in the implementation of the lighting effects, Lachnit was based on models from the Renaissance.The contrast between the light flesh tones and the rather blurred dark background. In terms of painting technique and composition, the "Portrait of Leni" is clearly related to the well-known work "Girl in Furs" completed just a year earlier (1926) and thus strengthened Lachnit's reputation as "Raphael of Dresden". Like many Dresden-based artists, he also lost Wilhelm Lachnit lost the majority of his works in the studio inventory as a result of the war. Paintings by the artist from the 1920s, the heyday of "New Objectivity" in Dresden, have been searched for in vain on the art market for decades. The few known works are in public hands or in the Possession of important private art collections.