Lot 11: RICHARD HARLFINGER (1873-1948) SECESSION. Circa 1910.

24 3/4x18 1/2 inches. R. Berger, Wein.
Condition A-: expertly repaired tears in margins.
Harlfinger was a member of the Secession from 1906 onwards and became the group's president in 1918. Yet there is almost no biographical information about him and within the contemporary Secession catalogues he is listed only once, as designing a poster for a poster exhibition in 1912, making this a very rare work. Harlfinger had certainly read Cezanne's approach to painting that became the basis Cubism, "treat nature using the cylinder, the sphere and the cone"-as this is the style he uses in creating this angular vision of a stone. It is a dynamic image, symbolizing, perhaps, the strength and endurance of Secessionist art.