KUBIN Alfred (1877-1959). - Lot 124

Lot 124
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Estimation :
6000 - 8000 EUR
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Result : 11 700EUR
KUBIN Alfred (1877-1959). - Lot 124
KUBIN Alfred (1877-1959). 57 L.A.S. "Alfred", "Kubin" or "Ali" (one incomplete), of which 2 with DRAWINGS, 1924-1954, to Reinhold ("Peter") and Hanne KOEPPEL; 78 pages in various formats, mostly (46) on postcards, some on his own letterhead or stamp, numerous addresses and a few envelopes; in German. Friendly correspondence from the Austrian engraver, draughtsman, painter, and writer with the German painter and his wife. The German painter Reinhald KOEPPEL (1887-1950) lived in the mountain village of Waldhäuser in the Bavarian forest; he received many artist friends there, among them, from 1922, Alfred Kubin, the beginning of a long and fraternal friendship. These 57 unpublished letters (except one) complete the published correspondence of Kubin to his friends: Die wilde Rast. Alfred Kubin in Waldhäuser. Briefe an Reinhold und Hanne Koeppel (München, Nymphenburger, 1972). The letters are written from Wernstein, Waldhäuser, Falkenstein, Winterberg, Horni Vltavice ober Moldau (Czechoslovakia), Passau, Neuhaus, Bad Ischl, Zwickledt, etc. Kubin talks about his work, his travels and journeys, his exhibitions, his future projects, his income and financial difficulties, especially during the war, with veiled allusions to the political situation, his wife Hedwig's health, the problems of ageing, etc. We will only give brief excerpts. One of the first cards, dated Waldhäuser, June 5, 1926, bears a pen-and-ink drawing at the top of the page, showing the Kubin couple and the Koeppel couple walking, with a dog, in a forest of fir trees. Kubin wistfully evokes the end of the beautiful days of Waldhäuser ("die schönen Tage von Waldhäuser gehen für uns unerbittlich ihrem Ende entgegen"). From his home in Zwickledt, on January 10, 1939, Kubin welcomes the new year, which according to the newspaper's predictions should be better than the previous one, despite the thieving captain Stalin: "1938 ist ein ungelegtes Ei, aber heute lasen wir in der Zeitung die Voraussagungen: danach's ein weit besseres [...] werden als das vergangene. In Ostasien wie bei samtlichen Angelsachsen gibt's Prestigeverluste, Deutschland kriegt eine Kolonie, der Papst stirbt. - Die letzten 2 Jahre hatte es der Prophet wie man hier sagt, "deraten" zu unserm Staunen [...] Richtig: auch dem Räuberhauptmann Stalin, heißt es, geht's 1938 an den Kragen"... He jokes about the honorary professorship he has been granted... He works more slowly and with difficulty: "Ich bin rasch erschöpft und gebrauche Kola, Lezithin, Cognak etc. und hoffe, daß der Winter vergeht - ob uns dann die schönen Grenzwälder wieder erbluhen!?"... He ironically inserts a newspaper clipping ("die letzte Culturblüte" about art for the People, and calling Rembrandt a ghetto painter), and wonders about his art: "Die Prager Sezession brachte wiederum 4 Originalverkäufe: nun soll Italien, Paris, London, Amerika dran kommen - aber ohne Treuhänder und Protektoren mache ich da nichts, sonst fällt man Schwindlern in die Hände. However, I have no more than a few people, only my art, which Mittun speaks of and which is also a true German art, can be used for the other nations... De Zwickledt on March 6, 1943, he talks about the proofs of his drawings for the magazine Simplicissimus, the illustrations he has just finished for Münchhausen, publishers who cannot keep their promises: "so sind die Verlage allgemeinst zu hohlen Versprechern geworden, durchkreuzt von der "Wehrmacht" (unseligen Angedenkenshoffentlich bald!) können sie ihre Zusagen (Papier, Druck, Binderei, Erscheinungstermin u.s.w.) eigentlich nie einhalten - über die Hangdinge wollen wir uns nur seelisch unterhalten, nicht brieflich"... Etc. A letter from Maundy Thursday 1950, written in turquoise ink, is topped by a large watercolour of a rabbit laying an Easter egg
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