Paul Adolf SeehausSchiffe im HafenOil on canvas primed in white, fully mounted on fibreboard. 55 x

Paul Adolf Seehaus
Schiffe im Hafen
Oil on canvas primed in white, fully mounted on fibreboard. 55 x 50 cm. Signed 'Seehaus 14.' in black in the image lower right. - Some minor craqueleur in the pastose area; in places with slight surface rubbing and minimal losses of color, for example in the lower center of the picture.

Dering G 36 (here "59 x 52 cm"); probably Rave I, 23 with slightly differing dimensions ("Schiffe im Hafen. 48 x 52, bez. Seehaus 14")

Provenance
From the artist's estate; Private possession, South Germany

Literature
Peter Dering, Paul Adolf Seehaus (1891-1919), Leben und Werk, Bonn 2004, p. 72/73, with illus. p. 72

In a darkly glowing colour harmony of blue, brownish orange and yellow as well as red and green - mixed heavily with grey and black - Seehaus has developed a nearly abstract composition that is Cubist in character: “What is seen is the left part of a harbour, with anchored ships whose masts soar upward. Together with their reflections in the water, they establish the dominant vertical orientation of the composition. At the left, along the shore, there are houses formed out of clear, cubic forms. The background cannot be interpreted in representational terms: a great number of splintered forms tapering upwards recall cliff formations - those of a fjord, for example - broken up by clouds of smoke” (Peter Dering, op. cit., p. 74). Suggested figurative elements on the quays or docks are virtually insignificant, and the effects of the reflections and the abstract-formal correspondences between the background and foreground are thus all the more dominant: the bluish, steeply soaring mountainous landscape finds its pendant in the prismatically refracted reflections of the seemingly deep water of the harbour. The result is a remarkably fanciful, boundary-dissolving, expressive vortex, which is stabilisingly countered by the more strongly representational vertical and horizontal elements in the middle ground. The selected detail of the motif as well as the almost square format are concentrated, even if Dering mentions that this could possibly be a fragment of a canvas (see p. 74, note 427, p. 150). “Schiffe im Hafen” is dated to 1914; its suggestive, formally abstract as well as expressive sense of depth clearly distinguish it from more strongly descriptive, topographically defined works of this period. The composition, interpreted as “Nordic-'Celtish'” in terms of its expression, builds on key works from 1913. The chiaroscuro contrasts applied in the colours and shading underscore the immanent structure within the painting and the independent formal life of this image.

Paul Adolf Seehaus
Schiffe im Hafen
Öl auf weiß grundierter Leinwand, ganzflächig auf Hartfaserplatte aufgezogen. 55 x 50 cm. Gerahmt. Unten rechts in der Darstellung schwarz signiert 'Seehaus 14.'. - In pastoser Partie mit leichtem Craquelé; die Oberfläche stellenweise, etwa in der unteren Bildmitte, mit leichtem Berieb und minimalen Farbverlusten.

Dering G 36 (hier "59 x 52 cm"); wohl Rave I, 23 mit leicht abweichenden Maßangaben ("Schiffe im Hafen. 48 x 52, bez. Seehaus 14")

Provenienz
Aus dem Nachlaß des Künstlers; süddeutscher Privatbesitz

Literatur
Peter Dering, Paul Adolf Seehaus (1891-1919), Leben und Werk, Bonn 2004, S. 72/73, mit Abb. S. 72

In einem dunkel glühenden Farbklang von Blau, bräunlichem Orange und Gelb sowie Rot und Grün - stark mit Grau- und Schwarzwerten durchsetzt -, entwickelt Seehaus eine kubistisch bestimmte, abstrahierte Komposition: "Zu sehen ist der linke Teil eines Hafenbeckens mit ankernden Schiffen, deren Masten hochaufragen. Sie bilden mit ihren Reflexen im Wasser die dominierende vertikale Ausrichtung der Komposition. Links am Ufer befinden sich aus klaren kubischen Formen gebildete Häuser. Der Hintergrund ist gegenständlich nicht deutbar, eine Vielzahl von splittrigen Formen,