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Oskar Kokoschka (1886 Pöchlarn/Niederösterreich - 1980 Montreux). Blumen. 1969 Watercolour . Signed and dated '3.VIII.69' lower right. On Arches (with watermark). 65,5 x 50 cm (25,7 x 19,6 in), size of sheet. Expertise: The authenticity of this work has kindly been confirmed by Dr. Alfred Weidinger, Vienna. The work will be included in the forthcoming fourth volume of Oskar Kokoschka's drawings and watercolours, prepared by Dr. Alice Strobl and Dr. Alfred Weidinger Provenienz: Private collection North Germany. While attending the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna from 1905 until 1909, Oskar Kokoschka was already working at the Wiener Werkstätte, founded by Josef Hoffmann in 1903. His illustrations and prints of that period reveal the influence of Viennese Jugendstil whereas, apart from van Gogh and Hodler, the Viennese Secession was important for his painting. From 1910 in Berlin, he worked on Herwarth Walden's magazine 'Der Sturm', contributing not only drawings but also publishing his writings. Enlisting in the Austrian cavalry in 1914, he was severely wounded and discharged to Vienna in 1916. Kokoschka was appointed professor at the Art Academy in Dresden in 1919 but gave up the post in 1924. The years that followed saw him based in Paris and travelling constantly. He did not return to Vienna until 1931. Appalled by the radical right-wing tendencies he encountered there, he moved to Prague in 1934. In 1937 the National Socialists confiscated 417 of his works. A year later the artist emigrated to London. He spent time in Switzerland in 1947 on the occasion of the large-scale retrospectives of his work mounted by the Basel Kunsthalle and the Zurich Kunsthaus. There followed trips to Salzburg, Hamburg and the United States, where he taught at the Minneapolis School of Art in 1952. Kokoschka moved to Lake Geneva in 1953 and that same year began teaching a course he called the 'School of Seeing' under the auspices of the International Summer Academy of Fine Art at Salzburg. During the years that followed he travelled widely in Europe, Africa and the United States. He received numerous honours during those years and exhibitions and retrospectives of his work were mounted by, among others, the Tate Gallery in London (1962) and the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart (1968). Oskar Kokoschka's late watercolours live from the immediacy of the spontaneous watercolour painting. Without a hint of preliminary drawing, the artist has here achieved a masterly work, capturing the blooms in all their natural freshness and purity with matchless visual brilliance. Our work exemplifies the unbroken creative powers of an artist who was over eighty years old and demonstrates the supreme achievement of which Kokoschka was capable at such an advanced age.In 1970 the artist began to write his autobiography, 'Mein Leben', which was published a year later and appeared in 1974 in English as 'My Life'. Oskar Kokoschka died in Montreux on 22 February 1980.[KD]In good condition, colours still fresh. Minimally discoloured and with isolated minor handling creases, more visible in the margins. Upper edge with a thin spot on the reverse due to the mounting, corners with remains of an old paper strip mount, minimally overlapping to the front.