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Max Pechstein (1881-1955), Am Ufer (At the Riverbank), etching and drypoint, 1920, signed in pencil lower right, with the blindstamp of Die Schaffenden lower left, Plate 9 from Die Schaffenden III, Jahrgang 1, published by Verlag Gustav Kiepenheuer, Weimar, 1921. Reference: Kruger R 116, from the edition of 125. In good condition, slight handling folds, minor soiling; printed on a cream/tan wove paper, the full sheet, 8 1/4 x 10 1/2, the sheet 12 1/8 x 16 inches.
A fine impression, printed in black ink on cream/tan wove with substantial burr on the drypoint work and with plate tone overall.
Provenance: ex Collection John and Valerie Butterwick, Kewanee, Illinois (not in Lugt).
In the spring of 1914 Pechstein went to the Palau Islands in the South Seas, returning to Germany via Japanese internment, the US and Holland, in 1915. He was drafted to the Somme front but in early 1917 returned to Berlin after a nervous collapse. He then participated in the emergence of art movements after the War, including the utopian call for socialised art in a socialist state; it’s possible that Am Ufer recalls the South Seas experience in the context of this later period.
