Gouache On Paper - Sailboats In Tegel, Berlin, Germany 1920s, Wilhelm Kohlhoff

Wilhelm Kohlhoff (Berlin, 1893 – Schweinfurt, 1971) – Sailing Boats at Tegel, Berlin, 1920s Gouache on Paper · 42 × 59 cm · Signed Lower Right · Expressive Realism · Berlin Secession

A gouache on paper depicting sailing boats on the Tegel lake, Berlin, executed by Wilhelm Kohlhoff in the 1920s in Berlin. 42 × 59 cm. Signed lower right Kohlhoff. Very good condition; light uniform age-browning of the paper, without alteration to the motif.

The Tegel lake — one of the great stretches of water in north-west Berlin, a popular leisure and sailing destination for Berliners since the 19th century — is here captured in the characteristic light of the capital in the 1920s: a luminous open-air scene treated with the freedom of touch and chromatic force that distinguish Kohlhoff's manner at the height of his Berlin period. Gouache — a supple and direct medium — was Kohlhoff's preferred technique for his open-air studies and works on paper of the 1920s.

Wilhelm Kohlhoff (Berlin, 6 May 1893 – Schweinfurt, 9 July 1971), self-taught painter and printmaker, began training as a porcelain painter at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin (Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur) in 1909 before devoting himself entirely to painting. In 1914 he exhibited for the first time at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. A member of the Berliner Sezession, he exhibited expressive works there under the influence of Lovis Corinth. In 1919 he received the Grand Prussian State Prize (Großer Preußischer Staatspreis) for a self-portrait immediately acquired by the Berliner Nationalgalerie. Kohlhoff is classified by art history within the Verschollene Generation and the current of Expressive Realism (Expressiver Realismus). His estate is held at the Deutsches Kunstarchiv of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. A major retrospective was devoted to him in 2021–2022 at the Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst in Frankfurt an der Oder.

Literature: Keßling, Susanne. Wilhelm Kohlhoff. Ausgewählte Werke aus öffentlichem und privatem Besitz. Schweinfurt, 1993.

• Technique: gouache on paper
• Dimensions: 42 × 59 cm
• Signature: Kohlhoff, lower right
• Dating: 1920s, Berlin
• Condition: very good · light age-browning of paper · unrestored

Seen in museums — available to you.

Available for viewing by appointment at our Düsseldorf gallery.

Keywords integrated: Wilhelm Kohlhoff, sailing boats Tegel Berlin 1920s, gouache, Berliner Sezession, Expressive Realism, Grand Prussian State Prize 1919, Berliner Nationalgalerie, Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nuremberg