Lot number 110 - Auction 140
'BAHNHOF TAUTENHAIN, FRÄULEIN KRASSELT MIT POSTKARRE' (1958)

CONRAD FELIXMÜLLER
1897 Dresden - 1977 Berlin

'BAHNHOF TAUTENHAIN, FRÄULEIN KRASSELT MIT POSTKARRE' (1958)

Oil on canvas. 90 x 95 cm (f. 97,5 x 102,5 cm). Signed 'C. Felixmüller' lower centre. Verso: signed 'Conrad Felixmüller', titled 'Ankunft des Arbeiterzuges (Winterabend in Tautenhain', inscribed 'WN: 1391, 1958' and with old adhesive labels. Part. min. with craquelure. Frame.

Provenance: Rhenish private collection.

Literature: Spielmann 1391; u.a. Vesper 1989, coloured ill. 46, p. 193 (see also exhibitions).

Exhibitions:
- Berlin 1973, 'Conrad Felixmüller. Ausstellungen seiner Malereien von 1913-1973', cat.-no. 46, inscribed 'Arbeiterzug mit Postfrau';
- Dresden/Rostock/Berlin 1975/76, cat.-no. 79; - Schleswig/Düsseldorf/Braunschweig/Halle, 1990/91, cat.-no. 74, coloured ill. p. 174; - Chemnitz/Bietigheim-Bissingen/Hamburg, 'Conrad Felixmüller- Zwischen Kunst und Politik', Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz-Museum Gunzenhauser, 25.11.2012-07.04.2013, cat.-no. 165, ill. S. 213.


As a result of the air raids on Berlin in 1944, both Conrad Felixmüller's flat and studio were destroyed, prompting him and his wife Londa to leave Berlin. They moved to Tautenhain, south of Leipzig, where they moved into an old barn until their return to Berlin in 1961, with the help of their friend and patron Hanns-Conon von der Gabelentz, who was director of the Lindenau Museum in Altenburg from 1945 to 1969. During his time in Tautenhain, Felixmüller continued to devote himself to realistic painting, with people and their immediate living and working conditions at the centre of his depictions. The painting 'Bahnhof Tautenhain, Fräulein Krasselt mit Postkarre' takes up a similar motif, which Felixmüller describes in a letter as follows:

"And painted in 1958 - it is the old postwoman from Tautenhain, pushing her yellow post cart through the snow that glows blue in the twilight. While the workers' train belches smoke and steam into the frosty winter sky, the mass of industrial workers streams towards their homes: it is daily life between the fields and the coal works, the craftsmen's parlour and the stable, including animals and children, that fills Felixmüller's pictures here." (Felixmüller to Hellmuth Heinz (1960), cited in exhib. cat. Chemnitz 2012, pp. 172-173)

The subtle nuances of his valeurs, such as in the depiction of the winter sky or the snow-covered paths, and the harmonious composition create an empathetic perspective on the workers. As early as the early 1920s, Felixmüller devoted himself to the subject of the working population, as his depictions of coal miners and blast furnace workers show. This exploration of motifs from the working class milieu continued in his works after 1945. The focus of his interest is the fate of these people and their recognition as individuals and not as part of an anonymous mass of industrial production processes. Felixmüller's depictions are neither heroic nor accusatory, but always maintain an empathetic view:

"The human side, the humanism of my painting, is less accusation than empathy. I know what it means to be a proletarian; I have known the drudgery in dirt and sweat since childhood - and what it means to be as well rested as to be well rested. [The heaviest loads must always be carried in sweat and dirt - and those who carry them have my deepest, grateful admiration. Compassion and knowledge!" (Felixmüller to Hellmuth Heinz (1960), cited in exhib. cat. Chemnitz 2012, p. 172)

This painting by Conrad Felixmüller from a private collection in the Rhineland is appearing on the auction market for the first time. It is a key work from the creative period of his realist painting and impressively demonstrates the painterly quality of his late work.