"Autumn Landscape: The Influence of Van Gogh on Brockhuizen"

(1882 Marggrabowa / East Prussia - 1919 Berlin) "Autumn Landscape." Original title: "View Through a Grove with Elegant, Light Trees onto a Group of Separate Houses." Executed with rhythmic, interlacing brushstrokes and impasto paint application, the autumn landscape reflects the influence of Vincent van Gogh on Theo von Brockhusen. Brockhusen studied at the Academy of Arts in Königsberg from 1897/98 to 1903. In 1904, he moved to Berlin and became a member of the Berlin Secession in 1906. He regularly participated in their exhibitions until his departure in 1913. Paul Cassirer, gallery owner and an important patron of Brockhusen, supported him from 1906 to 1915. As early as April 1906, Hans Rosenhagen praised Brockhusen in "Kunst für Alle" in a review of Cassirer’s exhibition, stating that his exhibited paintings were "full of tones, color, and courage." From 1907 onwards, he spent the summer months annually in Baumgartenbrück on Lake Schwielowsee, where he created landscape paintings depicting the intensely perceived Brandenburg landscape in the changing days and seasons. As part of a large series of landscape paintings, he depicted motifs of trees, blossoming fruit trees in Havelland, as well as avenues and village streets. In 1908, Cassirer organized a special exhibition of Brockhusen’s and others’ landscapes from the surroundings of Berlin, which a critic aptly described as follows: "Some of these works, strongly influenced by Van Gogh, were only raw and awkwardly created without delicate artistic feeling, but they contained promise and, above all, strong creative power" ("Kunstchronik", Neue Folge, 19th year, No. 21, April 3, 1908, p. 358). In 1912, he received the prestigious Villa Romana Prize. After returning to Berlin in 1913, he became one of the founders and a board member of the Free Secession in 1914. In 1915, Brockhusen broke off relations with his gallery owner Paul Cassirer; shortly before his death in 1918, he entrusted his works to a new gallery owner, Ferdinand Möller (who later also received his estate). In 1919, Brockhusen held a major solo exhibition at Möller’s gallery in Berlin, which was followed by three more commemorative exhibitions up to 1931. After Brockhusen, who for a long time remained little known due to the denigration of modern art by the National Socialists, his works have increasingly come to light since the major Brockhusen exhibition in 1999 in Berlin and Regensburg. Oil on canvas; signature; reverse side with original label indicating and titling "f. Brockhusen, No. B. 54, Autumn Landscape." 80 cm x 96.5 cm. Original frame. Provenance: From the collection of Ella Wellehener (1872-1937), prosecutor of Paul Cassirer’s art salon, Berlin; in family ownership since then.