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Otto AntoineImpressionist Oil Painting "Berlin Potsdamer Tor 1930", Hand Signed1930
1930
$4,547.60
£3,404.37
€3,800
CA$6,260.34
A$6,843.78
CHF 3,620.67
MX$81,896.79
NOK 46,067.77
SEK 42,170.39
DKK 28,951.32
About the Item
Otto Antoine
Koblenz 1865 - 1951 Unteruhldingen
Potsdam Gate, 1930
Oil on cardboard
Signed and dated lower left
Size: 66 x 52 cm
Frame: 76.5 x 62.5 cm
Good condition for its age, cardboard slightly warped (see photos)
Viewing and collection possible by prior appointment
Authenticity will be confirmed in writing.
Otto Antoine studied part-time at the Academy of Fine Arts and took courses in landscape and nude painting. There he found in Professor Franz Skarbina (1849–1910) an artist who recognized and encouraged his talent and taught him what he, as a self-taught artist, still had to learn.
In his early years, Antoine mainly painted landscapes, often in watercolor. After his apprenticeship with Skarbina, he preferred oil paint as a more expressive medium for larger paintings and increasingly turned to urban motifs. He produced a large number of oil paintings, pastels, watercolors, and etchings with Berlin motifs. Horse-drawn carriages on rain-wet streets, the hustle and bustle of Leipziger Strasse, or passers-by at the Brandenburg Gate are impressions that the artist captured in their randomness and immediacy. The cathedral, palace and palace bridge (Kaiser-Friedrich-Brücke), Unter den Linden, Brandenburg Gate, Leipziger Platz with Wertheim, Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz with Berolina and the police headquarters, the Reichstag, Tiergarten, Kurfürstendamm, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche and Tauentzienstraße, City Hall and the Altes Museum are naturally included in the long, by no means exhaustive list of Berlin images. It is the representative Berlin, the Berlin of monumental buildings. All the images are painted in an atmospheric, virtuoso impressionist style. The spirit of the times and its changes can be seen in the means of transport, the cabs, trams, and buses with their open upper decks, and in the clothing of the pedestrians. Otto Antoine also captured military scenes in his paintings on several occasions, such as the changing of the guard on Unter den Linden or the birthday parade for the emperor. On Saturdays and Sundays, he liked to go out into nature, accompanied by his wife and children, to paint in the open air just outside the city gates.
Since a stay in Neuwarp on the Baltic Sea in 1916, Otto Antoine had been friends with the painter Hans Hartig. While Hartig, who had previously preferred landscapes and the Baltic Sea as motifs, discovered the big city for his painting under the influence of his friend Antoine, Hartig, in turn, succeeded in interesting Antoine in motifs from the Baltic Sea. With his portrait of Hans Hartig painting in the port of Neuwarp, Antoine created a lasting memorial to his friend. Among the artists with whom Otto Antoine was friends were other "postal painters," such as Richard Albitz (1876–1954) and Gustav Fenkohl (1872–1950), who were prominent figures in Berlin's art scene.
Otto Antoine remained committed to Impressionism throughout his life. After his apprenticeship with Skarbina, he hardly changed his painting style, even when an art revolution began in Berlin around 1905, leading from Impressionism to Expressionism. Under the pressure of state control of art since 1933, he, like other painters, tended toward more realistic representations.
In 1893, one of Antoine's works was exhibited for the first time at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition (Grobeka) in the State Exhibition Building at Lehrter Bahnhof, followed in 1894 by an oil painting ("Es dunkelt..."). From 1897 onwards, he was represented almost regularly at this annual exhibition, which during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859–1941, emperor from 1888 to 1918) only presented works of official painting. At first, these were depictions of his Rhineland homeland (e.g., "Abend an der Mosel" (Evening on the Moselle) in 1900, "Lahneck" in 1901, and "An der Loreley" (At the Loreley) in 1901), then, from around 1911, mainly Berlin motifs. Antoine's paintings also always had a place in the Künstlerhaus, the permanent exhibition of works by living artists of the Verein Berliner Künstler (Association of Berlin Artists). In 1938 and from 1941 to 1943, Antoine was represented at the Great German Art Exhibition in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst (House of German Art) in Munich with depictions of monumental buildings, squares, and avenues in the Reich capital, as he had created them in his paintings "Brandenburger Tor" (Brandenburg Gate), "Victory Column," and "In Front of the Armory in Berlin," featuring the armory, cathedral, guardhouse, and parts of the university and opera house.
Otto Antoine was a member of the Association of Berlin Artists, founded in 1841. Later, he represented his fellow artists on the association's board and repeatedly participated in the organization of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition. He then became an honorary member and honorary president of the association. When, after the First World War, democratic pluralism found its way into officially promoted art in Berlin and the artists' associations Verein Berliner Künstler, Berliner Secession, Freie Secession, and Novembergruppe came together for the first time under one roof to provide a comprehensive overview of Berlin's artistic output, Otto Antoine and Hans Hartig represented the interests of the Verein Berliner Künstler in the joint jury formed for this purpose. When the Reich Chamber of Culture was created by law in the fall of 1933, Antoine became a member in order to continue practicing his profession.
As Otto Antoine's fame grew, so did recognition and commissions. Museums, public and state institutions, private art lovers, and collectors bought his works. He gained additional popularity through the reproduction of his paintings in calendars and through large print runs of postcards featuring many of his paintings, including postal motifs. Antoine was represented at all major German art exhibitions in Munich from 1938 to 1944, except in 1939.
Several of Otto Antoine's works were lost in the turmoil of World War II. These include, for example, 24 oil paintings depicting streets, bridges, and squares in Berlin, which the city of Berlin took into custody as important historical documents during the war and stored in the Warthegau. The painting "Leipziger Straße" from the collection of the Berlin National Gallery, which was located in the Upper Silesian Museum in Gleiwitz, is also considered lost. Fortunately, a large part of his work has been preserved. However, there is currently no complete overview of the locations of Antoine's works. The following information can only serve as a guide. A large number of works are in the possession of the family and other private collectors. The paintings Antoine created for the Reichspostmuseum and some works acquired by German postal museums after World War II are now preserved in the Museum Foundation for Post and Telecommunications. These include 22 oil paintings and 16 watercolors, as well as drawings and colored facsimiles. The Berlin City Museum Foundation preserves four paintings ("Security Police in Berlin, 1920," "Kaiser-Friedrich-Brücke, 1921," "Leipziger Platz, 1925," "Am Potsdamer Platz, 1930") and two prints by Antoine from former municipal holdings. The German Museum of Technology in Berlin owns the painting "Überführung der Hochbahn zu Berlin über die elektrische Vorortbahn und Fernbahn" (presumably 1905) with the yellow street mail cars at the Gleisdreieck. Antoine's oil painting from around 1920 depicting Berlin street traffic at Alexanderplatz, built in 1882, is located in the Reinickendorf district office in Berlin. Rhein-Chemie Holding in Heidelberg owns a collection of watercolors depicting Berlin (29 of which were on display in the aforementioned exhibition Alt-Berlin im Bild (Old Berlin in Pictures) on the occasion of the artist's 100th birthday).
- Creator:Otto Antoine (1865 - 1951)
- Creation Year:1930
- Dimensions:Height: 25.99 in (66 cm)Width: 20.48 in (52 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement Style:
- Period:
- Condition:
- Gallery Location:Eltville am Rhein, DE
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2910217152212
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