Otto DixWeite Ebene (Weiler bei Bohlingen)Oil on fine canvas, primed in white, mounted on a 14 mm

Otto Dix
Weite Ebene (Weiler bei Bohlingen)
Oil on fine canvas, primed in white, mounted on a 14 mm thick wooden panel. 67 x 85.2 cm. Framed. With the artist’s monogram and dated '1939' in reddish-brown lower right. - Titled "Ebene mit Weizenfeldern" by an unknown hand on reverse. - The coloured glaze applied by the artist corresponds to the frame opening sparing the margins which appear lighter. - The edges with minor rubbing due to frame; in excellent condition apart from a few slight professional retouches to the margins.

Löffler 1937/7 (without details on dimensions or support and erroneously titled: "Weiler hinter Bolingen" [sic])

We would like to thank Rainer Beck, Coswig, the editor of the new catalogue raisonné of Otto Dix's paintings currently under preparation, for his kind support.

Provenance
Formerly private possession, Hagen, then in family possession; Private possession, North Germany

“The landscapes of Dix do not provide a reproduction, but rather a concentration and intensification of reality. This occurs in diverse ways: through the arrangement of details, through the omission of individual passages, through the extreme emphasis placed on the most important points and through the renunciation of an embedding within the enveloping atmosphere that was so important to Impressionism. As the years passed, the landscape paintings of Dix also began to make use of the formal heritage of the Baroque, alongside characteristic stylistic elements of the Master of the Danube School. Thus, the picture plane is shifted and the landscape seen from a half bird's-eye view, which permits it to attain a greater layering of planes in depth. Remarkably, the figural artist Dix opted not to include any staffage figures in those years. [...] In late 1936 Dix moved to Hemmenhofen, a village on the banks of the Untersee, on the Höri peninsula not far from Radolfzell. This put an end to the motifs from Hegau, and they were replaced by lake landscapes until 1944.” (Fritz Löffler, Otto Dix, Leben und Werk, Dresden 1977, pp. 103 f.).
Dix very consciously selected motifs of great spatial breadth and depth because the meteorological and topographical situation could be particularly effectively represented by means of his technique of layered glazes. Weiler is a small community on the Höri peninsula, next to where Lake Constance flows out to the west, and it is surrounded by the Zellersee and the Rhine flowing towards Schaffhausen. The viewer's gaze stretches inland, above the roofs of Weiler and towards Bettnang and Bankholzen, and to the left towards the Schiener mountain as well as the Rhine valley located in the distance.

Otto Dix
Weite Ebene (Weiler bei Bohlingen)
Öl auf feiner weiß grundierter Leinwand, über 14 mm starke Holztafel aufgezogen. 67 x 85,2 cm. Gerahmt. Unten rechts rotbraun mit dem Künstlersignum versehen und datiert '1939'. - Rückseitig von fremder Hand betitelt. - Die vom Künstler aufgebrachte farbige Lasur, die dem vorhandenen Rahmungsausschnitt entspricht, belässt die seitlichen Ränder frei, so daß diese etwas heller ausfallen. - An den Kanten rahmungsbedingt mit geringfügigem Abrieb; bis auf wenige kleine fachmännische Retuschen im Rand- bzw. Kantenbereich in hervorragender Erhaltung.

Löffler 1937/7 (ohne Angabe des Formats und des Bildträgers sowie irrtümlich betitelt: "Weiler hinter Bolingen" [sic])

Wir danken Rainer Beck, Coswig, dem Bearbeiter des in Vorbereitung befindlichen neuen Werkverzeichnisses der Gemälde von Otto Dix, für freundliche Hinweise.

Provenienz
Ehemals Privatbesitz, Hagen, dann in Familienbesitz; Norddeutscher Privatbesitz

"Die Landschaften von Dix geben keine Abbilder, sondern sind Konzentration und Steigerung der Wirklichkeit. Das geschieht auf mannigfache Weise: durch Ordnung der Details, durch Weglassen einzelner Partien, durch Überhöhung der wichtigsten Punkte und