Karl Hagedorn

Waterman Fine Art, London
John Noott Galleries, Broadway
 

There are a few scattered abrasions to the reverse of the panel but otherwise it is in good overall condition. There is a horizontal line incised in the paint surface in the lower left corner. There are a few tiny abrasions to the paint surface in the upper left corner, perhaps caused by frame abrasion. Examination under ultra-violet light reveals a horizontal line of retouching to the lower left corner and a few scattered spots along the top and right edge of the board in the upper right corner, apparently to areas of paint lost through frame abrasion. Held in a wooden frame with gilded edges which has been flecked with black paint.
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Karl Hagedorn was born in Berlin in 1889 but settled permanently in England in 1905. He trained in textile production at the Manchester School of Technology, an early education which had a great impact on his painting. Hagedorn subsequently studied at a number of art schools including the School of Art in Manchester, the Slade and Maurice Denis's art school in Paris between 1912 and 1913.

The composition and colouring of the present painting are absolutely meticulous. The figures in the foreground represent a selection of contemporary society: mothers, fathers, children, policemen and peddlers that one might expect to make up a crowd at the fairground. But as individuals each figure is identityless. From the ordered recession of the trees in the background to the immaculately aligned cogs and railings on The Big Wheel, each element of Hagedorn's scene combines to form a faultlessly designed whole. The permeating use of primary colours adds to the sense of the man-made. Hagedorn's painting appears to be inspired by the Cubist and Futurist work he saw during his time at Denis's school in Paris, but the overwhelming impression of order is at odds with the avant-garde art produced in France in the early twentieth century, and must have its foundation in Hagedorn's early training in textile design. 

The Whitworth Art Gallery held an exhibition dedicated to the artist in 1994, entitled Manchester's First Modernist Karl Hagedorn.