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a drawing of a woman holding a baby in her armsan image of a drawing of a woman holding a baby in her arms
Widder Auktionen

Estimate €300 - €500
Sale commission
Description
Georg Merkel* (Lemberg 1881 – 1976 Vienna) Standing nude charcoal on paper 45 x 27.5 cm signed Merkel ESTIMATE €300 – €500 STARTING PRICE €300 Georg Merkel was an Austrian artist who was born in 1881 in Lemberg, Galicia (now Lviv, Ukraine), into a poor family. Initially, he worked as a decorative painter; from 1903 to 1905, with the support of a friend, he studied at the Academy in Kraków. From 1905 to 1908 and from 1909 to 1914, he lived in Paris, devoting himself to French Classicism and to Paul Cézanne. As a volunteer in the Austro-Hungarian army during the Great War, Merkel was wounded in the head and lost his sight. The recovery of his eyesight had a profound impact on him and became a defining factor in his art. Between the First and Second World Wars, Merkel lived in Vienna and was a member of the Viennese artists’ association ‘Hagenbund’. He also had links with the artists’ colony in Zinkenbach, Salzburg. In 1938, his art was denounced as ‘degenerate’ by the Nazi regime, prompting him to emigrate to France via Czechoslovakia. Merkel was interned in the south of France, then settled in Montauban. From 1945, Merkel was a member of the Vienna Secession, and in 1961 he received the City of Vienna Prize. In 1972, he finally returned to Vienna. Georg Merkel was married to the painter Louise Merkel-Romeé (1888–1977). We know of his acquaintance with Elias Canetti, who mentioned Merkel in the third part of his diaries, entitled *Das Augenspiel*, in 1985. Other artists and styles: Rudolf Bacher, Vienna Secession, Künstlerhaus Vienna, Expressionism, Viennese Modernism, portrait painting, Lviv Artists’ Colony, Elias Canetti, Hagenbund, Zinkenbach painters’ colony, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Josef Engelhart, Anton Faistauer, Egon Schiele 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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