Pencil drawing on thin vellum
28 x 20 cm
Dated '23/25 II 1946' and '5706'
Price on Request
Private Collection, South Germany
Ludwig Meidner’s arresting and powerful self-portrait is one of many produced throughout the lifetime of the German Expressionist. A deeply honest and brave depiction, the artist's gaze suggests a psychological turmoil countered by a profound inner resolve. As a founding member of the group Die Patheticker (meaning those filled with pathos) he sought in his art to generate an emotional response from the viewer, an intention clearly evident in the present work.
Meidner was one of the leading Expressionists, and achieved fame before the First World War with his apocalyptic cityscapes, indicative of the frenzied nature and chaos of the increasingly urban world in the years leading up to the war. These works are sometimes considered some of the purest expressionist works; and gave him a reputation as the most Expressionist of the Expressionists. In 1912 Meidner co-founded the Expressionist group, Die Pathetiker with Jacob Steirnhardt and Richard Janthur. His portraits from 1915 to the end of the 1920s are a gallery of the leading expressionist and Dada writers, film directors and poets. He was an habitual self portraitist, and with their candid gaze and firm stare they are often compared with Van Gogh’s.
His earlier portraits, of himself and others, are more frequently produced in ink and have a more neurotic, agitated line; the subjects appear more contorted and abstracted. Later in his career, as here, his approach softens and his works have more subtlety and compassion, but are equally powerful and emotive in their own way. His clear skill as a draftsman is displayed here, and coupled with a psychological sensitivity, the work is something of a quiet tour de force.
Drawn while in exile in England, Meidner had to emigrate due to his Jewish faith. Prior to this his art, like many other Expressionists was deemed ‘degenerate’ by the Nazis and his work was in the 1937 Degenerate Art exhibition. Meidner was interned in a camp for German exiles, on the Isle of Man. Despite struggling to earn a living, this period of exile was particularly productive artistically, which resulted in numerous drawings and watercolours. Following the end of the war he moved from Isle of Man to London, where this piece was produced.
Born in Bernadstadt, Silesia in 1884, he went on to study at the Royal School of Art in Breslau and, from 1906 to 1907 studied painting at the Académie Julian and Cormon Academies in Paris. There he met and became friends with Amedeo Modigliani. He returned to Berlin to work as a fashion illustrator, where he achieved fame for his paintings. During WWI Ludwig served in the German military as a French interpreter and an infantry soldier. After the First World War Meidner turned to Orthodox Judaism.
