SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Max Pechstein

Born : 1881Died : 1955Documented citizenships : Germany

In 1907, the State Prize of Saxony enabled him to travel to Italy and Paris. After meeting Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erich Heckel, he joined the artists’ group Die Brücke. In 1908, he also joined the Berliner Secession.

Travel was an important source for part of his graphic work. In 1913–1914, he travelled across the South Seas and spent four months in the Palau Islands, then a dependency of the colony of German New Guinea. His journeys, particularly in Italy and the Pacific, are reflected in his travel drawings and lithographs; his etchings also evoke his experience of the First World War, in which he took part, notably during the Battle of the Somme. From 1921 onwards, the areas around the lakes of Łeba and Garder in Pomerania became another subject of his paintings. He set untamed nature against people at work, bringing landscape and human activities together in his compositions.

His career was subsequently marked by measures taken against his work under the Nazi regime: he lost his professorship in 1933, the year in which his works were labelled ‘degenerate art’, and was then excluded from the Prussian Academy of Arts in 1937. In 1945, he became a professor at the Berlin School of Fine Arts. In 1952, he received a distinction described as the German equivalent of the Legion of Honour and became an honorary citizen of Zwickau. His works are held in several institutions, including the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, which holds Trois nus dans un paysage (1911), and the Musée des beaux-arts de Nancy, where a Paysage from 1912 is held. Paintings and engravings are also included in the collections of the Städel Museum, the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

This profile brings together identity references for Max Pechstein and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

Documented auction references

46auction references

5auction houses

36documented results with prices

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Germann · Kornfeld · Lempertz · Piguet

References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.

Works recorded at auction

Photograph : Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Enlarge image ↗

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Lot 157

Abend am Chiemsee I, 1947

Watercolour and gouache on paper

Original catalogue wording

Abend am Chiemsee I, 1947
Aquarell und Gouache auf Papier

Catalogue period : 2026-06-24

Published result : 17784 CHF

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : CHF 8000–12000

Max Pechstein

Documented auction references

Works recorded at auction

Abend am Chiemsee I, 1947

Kloster von San Gimignano

Composition

Kniender weiblicher Akt vor dem Spiegel

Zwei Männer - Komposition

Feldrand mit Blumen und Tier

Composition

Studie zu "Grosse Mühlgrabenbrücke"

Stilleben mit chinesischem Buddha

Am See (Sonnenuntergang am Koser See)

Abend am Chiemsee I, 1947

Bathing figures on the beach; reverse: couple in a café, 1911

Das Kloster von San Gimigniano

Dorf in Flandern

Sonnenuntergang in den Dünen

Variétészene

Strahlende Sonne

Krankes Mädchen

Käthchen und Cherub auf der Flucht aus brennendem Schloss. Verso: Schlossgraben

Segelboote

Brücke am Morgen I.

Das blaue Kleid: Bildnis Frau Dr. Plietzsch

Durst I

Boxpause

Baumspiegelung bei schwerem Wetter

Weiblicher Akt, sich die Haare kämmend

Eigenhändiger Brief in Feder in Tusche, 2 Seiten, mit Zeichnung: Segelboote

Segelboot an der Ostseeküste

Die Ansprache

Kniender weiblicher Akt vor dem Spiegel

Zwei Kutter im Hafen von Leba

Variété

Vorstadt

Still life with flowers

Landschaft mit Kirche, Nikolaikirche in Leba. 1922.

Fischerboote auf Leba

Weiblicher Akt am Meer

Interieur/Kneipenraum. Verso: Zwei Boote (Flundernfischerei)

Apokalyptische Reiter

Bildnis einer Frau, 1923

Angler am Leba-Strom, 1936

Anlanden des Bootes, 1949

Badende, 1917

Kurenkähne in der Bucht

Sonnenaufgang

Zwei Männer - Komposition

Sources and references

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