FINE ART INVESTMENTS SINCE 1978
ANTIQUE PRINTS
Max PECHSTEIN
Title: "Weib Vom Manne Begehrt (Woman Desired by Man)"
Portfolio: Deutsche Grapiker der Gegenwart (German
Printmakers of Our Time)
*Unsigned edition *Rare
Year: 1919
Medium: Original Woodcut Engraving
Limited edition: 500
Sheet size: 12.75" x 9.5"
Image size: 9.88" x 6.25"
Reference: Fetcher 157
Price: $1,800
Pechstein was born in Zwickau, the son of a craftsman who worked in a textile mill. Early contact with the art of Vincent van Gogh
stimulated Pechstein's development toward expressionism. After studying art first at the School of Applied Arts and then at the
Royal Art Academy in Dresden, Pechstein met Erich Heckel and joined the art group Die Bru¨cke in 1906. He was the only member
to have formal art training. Later in Berlin, he helped to found the Neue Sezession and gained recognition for his decorative and
colorful paintings that were lent from the ideas of Van Gogh, Matisse, and the Fauves. His paintings eventually became more
primitivist, incorporating thick black lines and angular figures.
From in 1933, Pechstein was vilified by the Nazis because of his art. A total of 326 of his paintings were removed from German
museums. Sixteen of his works were displayed in the Entartete Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition of 1937. During this time,
Pechstein went into seclusion in rural Pomerania. He was a prolific printmaker, producing 421 lithographs, 315 woodcuts and
linocuts, and 165 intaglio prints, mostly etchings. Pechstein was a professor at the Berlin Academy for ten years before his dismissal
by the Nazis in 1933. He was reinstated in 1945, and subsequently won numerous titles and awards for his work. He died in West
Berlin. He is buried on the Evangelischer Friedhof Alt-Schmargendorf in Berlin.