Widder Auctions

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Spring Auction

GEORG MERKEL* (Lvov 1881 - 1976 Vienna)
Bundle of two works

Lovers, 1920
lithography/paper, 28,1 x 23,2 cm
signed Merkel

Sketch of a girl
pencil/paper, 20,6 x 15,8 cm
signed Merkel
verso dedication Herrn Peter Chrastek in Freundschaft zugeeignet. Wien, 6.I.1986 Carl Merkel

ESTIMATE °€ 200 - 300
STARTING PRICE °€ 200

Georg Merkel was an Austrian artist who was born in 1881 in Lemberg, Galicia (now Lwiw, Ukraine), in poor conditions. First he worked as a painter of decorations, with the help of a friend he studied between 1903 and 1905 at the Academy in Krakow. From 1905 until 1908 and from 1909 until 1914 he lived in Paris, devoting himself to French Classicism and to Paul Cézanne. As a svolunteer in the Austrio-Hungarian Armyduring the Great War, Merkel was injured on the head and went blind. Of course the recovery of his eyesight was very important for him and defining for his art. Between the First and the Second World War Merkel lived in Vienna and was a member of the artist’s association Hagenbund. He had also contact to the painter’s colony in Zinkenbach in Salzburg. In 1938 his art was defamed as “degenerated” by the Nazi Regime and so he emigrated to France. Merkel was interned in Southern France, then lived in Montauban. Since 1945 Merkel was a member of the Viennese Secession and in 1961 the received the prize of the City Vienna. Only in 1972 he came back to Vienna. Georg Merkel was married with the painter Louise Merkel-Romeé (1888–1977). We know about his acquaintance with Elias Canetti, who mentioned Merkel in the 3rd part of his diaries titled “Das Augenspiel” in 1985.

PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographs 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium.
The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.

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