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Dimensions: 120 by 90cm., 47 1/4 by 35 3/8 in.

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Provenance: Estate of the artist
Acquired from the above by the present owner

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Exhibited: Baden-Baden, L'Art Allemand Moderne - Deutsche Kunst der Gegenwart, 1947, no. 228
Berlin, Haus am Waldsee, Berliner Neue Grupppe 1949, 1949, no. 56
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Grosse Kunstausstellung, 1956, no. 326, illustrated in the catalogue
Munich, Haus der Kunst, Gedächtnisausstellung, 1963
Bonn, Bundeskanzleramt (on loan 1977-83)
Braunschweig, Kunstverein Braunschweig & Kaiserslautern, Pfanzlgalerie, Max Pechstein, 1982, illustrated in the catalogue
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum - Schloss Gottorf, Max Pechstein, Werke aus dem Brücke-Museum, Berlin, 2001
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen - Schloss Gottorf (on loan 2001-08)
Schleswig, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Landesmuseum - Schloss Gottorf, Expressionismus auf Schloss Gottorf, 2002, no. 61, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

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Literature: Helmut Schmidt & Doris Schmidt (et. al.), Kunst im Kanzleramt - Helmut Schmidt und die Künste, Munich, 1982, illustrated p. 192

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Notes: To be included in the forthcoming Pechstein Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Dr Aya Soika.
PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE GERMAN COLLECTION
Painted in 1919, the present work is a wonderfully vivid example of the artist's mature Expressionist style. Despite painting fewer works, the intensity and vibrancy of Pechstein's work was increased, producing some of his most significant paintings. With its luscious colouration of saturated yellows, reds and greens and the partly abstract composition, Malven I is a portrayal of a still-life that demonstrates Pechstein's debt to the Fauve painters, such as Henri Matisse, as well as his admiration for Paul Cézanne and Van Gogh. Stylistically the present work corresponds closely to Expressionist ideas of the former Brücke member, aiming towards a distortion of form and perspective and a stridency of colour and vision. Indeed the abstracted forms in the background brilliantly underline Pechstein's continuous experimentation with the painterly language of Expressionism.

Having returned home to Berlin after the war, the artist described his emotional and spiritual turmoil in a letter from 6υth August 1919 to his friend Georg Biermann: '...until in spring 1917 I can return to Berlin, in order to throw myself ravenously into the long desired sea of colours. From time to time I still have dreams waking me at night, my nerves refusing to get used to the tranquillity of bourgeois existence. Everything is new: How did I prime my canvases in the past and what colours did I use? (...) My senses were absolutely jaded. Often I was dreading to mentally collapse. (...) Now this wild dream has come to an end. It's summer again. Finally I am completely free, sitting in my beloved Nidden, working and bursting with energy' (quoted in Max Pechstein im Brücke-Museum (exhibition catalogue), 2001-02, p. 45, translated from German). The art critic Paul Fletcher commented on Pechstein's remarkable stylistic development in the 1920s: 'The strong impact evident in Pechstein's works of that period is probably due to a newly acquired balance between experience and his own creation. In his earlier work either one or the other is dominant, whereas in the 1920s Pechstein found the perfect harmony. The artist abandons the stylisation of forms and creates compositions in which the elements of colour, shape and form merge into one organic whole' (quoted in Max Pechstein im Brücke-Museum (exhibition catalogue), 2001-02, p. 44, translated from German).