MUNICH.- Oscar Miller and Ferdinand Hodler are two big names. While the first was one of the most significant collectors of Swiss Modern Art, the latter is considered the most popular Swiss painter. With “Kastanienallee bei Biberist“, an early key work by the artist from the renowned Miller Collection will be called up in what probably is going to be the most spectacular auction at Ketterer Kunst, Germany’s leading art auctioneer, in Munich on December 9/10.

Next to Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch, Hodler was one of the leading figures of Modernism. His 1898 “Kastanienallee bei Biberist“ is an early key work in which the artist introduced horizontal and parallel structures into his landscape painting. Not only the motif, but also the dedication in its lower margin “A mon Ami Monsieur Oscar Miller“ suggest that Hodler made the painting during a visit to the collector in Biberist, a community near Solothurn.

In the late 19th century , Oscar Miller (1862–1934), director of a paper mill, began to compile an acclaimed collection of contemporary art including works from, among others, Amiet, Buchser, Kirchner and Vallotton. Upon the acquisition of his first Hodler, today on permanent loan at the Gottfried Keller Foundation at Museo Cantonale d'Arte in Lugano, he established a personal contact with the artist, who
expressed his delight and gratitude in a letter to the collector: “... a picture in your hands is like a child well cared for."

Miller was fascinated, too. Over the course of time, he bought around twenty Hodler paintings, most of them before 1900, and rhapsodized: “Some of our acquaintances knew how much I valued simplicity even before our Hodler period. And yet, it was only through Hodler that I fully grasped it. Through his pictures andhis personality“ (Oscar Miller: Wie ich zu meinen Bildern kam und was sie mir sagen, 1903).

A large part of the Oskar Miller Collection is at the Kunstmuseum Solothurn today. The oil painting “Kastanienallee bei Biberist“ remained in possession of one and the same family until 2012. Now it will be called up with an estimate of € 1,400,000-1,800,000 as one of the top lots in Ketterer Kunst’s autumn auction.

Apart from this Hodler painting, the section of MODERN ART offers iconic works from “Painters of the Brücke - Collection Hermann Gerlinger“. Among them Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Das blaue Mädchen in der Sonne“ (estimate: € 2,000,000-3,000,000), Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s “Rote Düne“ (estimate: € 800,000-1,200,000) and Erich Heckel’s poplar sculpture “Stehende“ (estimate: € 600,000- 800,000). Other highlights are Emil Nolde’s “Meer D“ (estimate: € 800,000 – 1,200,000) and Max Beckmann’s “Holzsäger im Wald“ (estimate: € 600,000 – 800,000). More fascinating modern art comes from, among others, Hans (Jean) Arp, Lovis Corinth, Paul Gauguin, Karl Hofer, Max Liebermann, Gabriele Münter, Emil Nolde, Christian Rohlfs, Egon Schiele and Hermann Max Pechstein.




In the section of CONTEMPORARY ART we find luminaries like Georg Baselitz with his “Hofteich“ (estimate: € 700,000-900,000) and Anselm Kiefer with “Die Ordnung der Engel” (estimate: € 300,000-400,000), but also Günther Förg, Katharina Grosse, Martin Kippenberger, Karin Kneffel, Konrad Lueg, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Günther Uecker and Gerhard Richter, as well as international artists: Richard Serra is represented with “Corner Prop No. 6 (Leena and Tuula)“, estimated at € 600,000-800,000, it is the sculptor’s first unique piece offered on the global auction market since 2016. Another highlight is “He Kept Following Me“ from David Wojnarovicz (estimate: € 350,000-450,000). The international array is completed by, among others, Tony Cragg, Keith Haring, Sol LeWitt, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol and Stanley Whitney, who celebrates an auction premiere in Germany.

Find the auction’s highlights here:

Auction:
November 16-17 - Hamburg

Preview:
November 19-21 - Cologne
November 23-24 - Frankfurt
November 26 – December 01 - Berlin
December 03-09 - Munich

Saleroom Auction
December 09 - Contemporary Art Day Sale/Evening Sale/SHG
December 10 - 19th Century Art/Modern Art Day Sale/SHG

Ketterer Kunst with headquarters in Munich and branches in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Berlin as well as with a global network of representatives in, among others, the USA and Brazil, was founded in 1954. The owner-operated auction house has a focus on Fine Art from the 19th to the 21st Century and on Rare Books. In its market segment, Ketterer Kunst is the Number 1 in the German language region. Ketterer Kunst is the specialist for German art, as well as for many international artists sought-after in Europe, the USA and Asia, who regularly realize record prices at Ketterer Kunst. According to the annual 2021 artprice database, Ketterer Kunst is on place 3 of the strongest-selling art auction houses in Continental Europe.