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Estimate €4,000 - €8,000
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Description
Albert Birkle* (Berlin 1900 – 1986 Salzburg) Daffodils oil on panel, 37 x 53 cm inscribed on the reverse: ‘The painting on the reverse is an original work by Prof. Albert Birkle, which I received personally from the artist on 9 January 1985’ ESTIMATE €4,000 – €8,000 STARTING PRICE €4,000 The German painter and draughtsman Albert Birkle completed an apprenticeship as a decorative painter, studied from 1920 to 1925 at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Berlin and was a master student of Arthur von Kampf. During his studies, he developed a religiously influenced, socially critical realism incorporating formal-aesthetic, neo-objective elements, which displayed caricatural traits, particularly in his depictions of human heads. Straddling the line between Expressionism and New Objectivity, and often exaggerated to the point of the fantastical, a direct and close reference to the Christian Passion is frequently discernible. As the youngest member, Birkle was admitted to the Berlin Secession in 1921; later he was admitted to the Prussian Academy of Arts, headed by Max Liebermann as president. The artist turned down an offer of a professorship at the Königsberg Academy in 1927 in order to carry out commissions for church murals in Gaislingen and Katowice, amongst other places. Following the Nazi seizure of power, Birkle moved to Salzburg, whilst retaining his Berlin studio. In 1936 he exhibited at the Berlin National Gallery and represented Germany at the Venice Biennale. The paintings shown there were removed from the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich in 1937; other works of his were confiscated from public collections as ‘degenerate’, and he himself was banned from painting. Birkle volunteered for the Reich Labour Service, which enabled him to temporarily avoid military service. He worked as a war painter and war correspondent, and was conscripted in 1944. In 1946, Birkle was granted Austrian citizenship and devoted himself primarily to sacred art as a glass painter. In the 1950s and 1960s, he produced significant works in this field. In his later work as a painter and draughtsman, he drew on the socially critical themes of his early motifs in an expressive style. Other artists and styles: Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, the Berlin Secession, New Objectivity, Arthur Kampf, Max Liebermann, Anton Faistauer, Herbert Boeckl, Franz Sedlacek, Johann Baptist Wenzel Kallina, stained glass PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price comprises the highest bid plus the buyer’s premium, VAT and, where applicable, the artists’ resale rights fee and platform fee. In the case of standard taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The statutory sales tax of 13 per cent (20 per cent for photographs) is added to the sum of the highest bid, the buyer’s premium and the platform fee. The buyer’s premium amounts to 28 per cent in the case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.
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About the sale Modern Art
Auction location
Auction time 09/30/2026 at 10:00 AM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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