Hermann Scherer

Hermann Scherer was born in Rümmingen, Germany, in 1893 and settled permanently in Switzerland during the First World War. He decided to paint in addition to his sculptural activities in 1922, after discovering the Edvard Munch retrospective in Zurich. The following year, he met Ernest Ludwig Kirchner and took up a residency with him near Davos. From then on, the artist definitively distanced himself from the ideal classicism characteristic of his early works: he unleashed his subjectivity and created paintings of great expressiveness. At the end of 1924, Scherer co-founded the "Rot-Blau" group in Mendrisiotto together with Albert Müller and Paul Camenisch.

The present painting was executed in 1924 and is double sided. On the recto the artist Albert Müller and his wife Anna are depicted side by side, whereas on the verso, a man smoking a pipe is surrounded by a typical Swiss mountain landscape. Man and nature seem symbolically bounded, one merging into the other due to the chromatic unity. Typical of our daily lives, these two scenes are magnified by the use of bold primary colours. The dynamic forms and broad brushstrokes are characteristic of Scherer’s Expressionist style.

This work will be included in the Catalogue Raisonné of the artist currently being prepared by Martin Schwander.