Ferdinand Brütt

By descent through the family of the artist to the present owner

Good condition, unlined, divots to upper left and right corners; under UV: 2 inch vertical area of inpainting to address repaired tear in central figural group, 2 inch horizontal spot of inpainting at lower center to possible repaired tear.
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Painted circa 1891.

A highly acclaimed genre artist, Ferdinand Brütt is one of the most important narrators of late nineteenth century German society. Born in 1849 in Hamburg, he worked in Düsseldorf from 1876 to 1898 after receiving his artistic education in Weimar. Early on, Brütt - following the style of the Düsseldorf School - dedicated himself to rural genre scenes with anecdotal elements. In the early 1880s he started to focus on contemporary urban scenes - the bourgeois culture of the German empire became the main subject of his oeuvre, as expressed in numerous works showing dramatic court scenes or the tumultuous business of the stock exchange. He exhibited frequently in Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Paris and London and became highly decorated, notably winning a medal at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

 

At the turn of the century Brütt mainly worked in Frankfurt am Main and the nearby Kronberg, where he concentrated on portraying upper class society in the foyers of the opera house, in casinos and on tennis courts. Thematically as well as artistically Brütt's style is therefore quite similar to that of Adolph von Menzel (see lot 69) and Max Liebermann. Like Menzel, he created highly detailed, multi-figural paintings with a narrative content. His later works display a nonchalant modern air, closely related to the German Impressionists, though he never joined the avant-garde movement.

 

In the 1880s and 1890s Brütt was working in both a detailed, academic manner, as well as a more modern impressionistic style. Very fine examples of his impressionistic technique can be found in several highly-finished large-sized versions of his major academic paintings. An excellent example of his method of painting in two different styles simultaneously is At the Station, dated from 1891, executed in two versions of almost identical dimensions. The academic version (fig. 1), initially exhibited in Stuttgart, later in Munich and London, is today located at the Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf. The more impressionistic version (the present lot) exhibits a less restrained approach and remained in Brütt's possession.

 

At the Station shows the main train station in Düsseldorf ("Bergisch-Maerkischer-Bahnhof") erected in 1876.  The artist concentrates on the different travellers in the entrance hall. On the one hand this work fits within the tradition of a narrative style of painting, as every figure and every captured scene seem to tell their own story. On the other hand, Brütt creates an impressive ambience, establishing an air of colourful bustle reflecting the impression of a modern city.

 

Existing at the crossroads of Academic art and Impressionism, Ferdinand Brütt's oeuvre reflects an important moment in the arts and the culture of the German empire at the turn of the nineteenth century.

 

Earlier this year a major retrospective at the Museum Giersch in Frankfurt am Main was dedicated to Ferdinand Brütt.

 

We are grateful to Dr. Alexander Bastek, Museum Giersch, www.museum-giersch.de, for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.