Lot 137: Boris Kleint (1903-1996)

Boris Kleint (1903-1996)
Junges Mädchen am Wasser
signed 'Kleint' (lower right); dated '35/36' (centre left); signed and inscribed 'Kleint "Junge Mädchen" am Wasser' (on the artist's mount)
watercolour, Spritztechnik, coloured crayon and pencil with collage on paper
Image: 12½ x 10½ in. (31.7 x 26.8 cm.)
Artist's mount: 15¾ x 11¾ in. (40 x 30 cm.)
Executed in 1935-1936

Heinz Trökes, Berlin, probably a gift from the artist.
Acquired from the estate of the above by the present owner in the mid-1990s.

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.
This collage is a very rare example of Kleint's early work from the mid-1930s, which is predominantly influenced by Surrealist artists like Max Ernst, here stylistically discernable in the lyrical forms of the landscape and the use of the collage technique. Later, Kleint was to become primarily known through his association with Johannes Itten, a colorist and core member of the Weimar Bauhaus. Junges Mädchen am Wasser was in the collection of Heinz Trökes, the Surrealist artist who would later go on to be seen as one of the major exponents of Abstract art in Germany alongside Willi Baumeister, Ernst Wilhelm Nay and Fritz Winter.