Lot 155
Maxim Kopf (1892 - 1958) A NIGHT SEASCAPE

1930s
Oil on canvas
69 x 89 cm (h x w)
Lower right "M. Kopf"

Starting price
240 000 CZK
   |   9 796 €
Price realized
410 000 CZK
   |   16 735 €
price without premium

The painting, depicting the sea under a full moon, belongs to a series of landscape paintings that the artist created during his stay in southern Europe in the early 1930s. The supremely expressive form belongs to the artist's virtuoso works, where he abandons simple descriptiveness and plunges headlong into an intimate experience. In undulating and wildly swirling strokes, the work captures the full range of sensations of the night, with the sound of waves crashing against nearby rocks in the ghostly pale moonlight. The vertical brushstrokes are reminiscent of sudden rain drumming on the surface of the sea. The work offers an excellent example of the artist's popular work with themes from his travels in Europe and exotic lands, which he presented mainly at his solo exhibitions of the Krasoumné jednota in Prague in 1927, 1935 and 1937. The rarity of his works, in addition to their undeniable artistic, craft and aesthetic qualities, is enhanced by their unavailability. Thanks to the artist's life fate, a large part of his works are now lost and signed works are very rare. The offered work has been assessed by Maxim Kopf's expert, Ivo Habán.