Max Pechstein (1881 Zwickau - 1955 Berlin) Red House on the Lagoon According to Julia Pechstein's expertise, this watercolour belongs to a series of works created during Pechstein's summer stay in Nidden on the Curonian Spit in 1919. The view is from a slightly elevated position of one of the region's characteristic brick houses in the dunes, behind it the sea with fishing boats under a blue sky with bright red clouds. The expressionist depiction, executed with a dynamic, sweeping style in bright, contrasting colouring, is an exemplary testimony to his deep love for the small coastal town of Nidden, which Pechstein retrospectively described as his "painter's paradise". The "Brücke" painter regularly spent his summer months there between 1909 and 1920. The dune landscape and beaches, the fishing harbour, the fishermen's houses and huts and the unspoilt hinterland offered peace and relaxation as a counterpoint to city life in Berlin, but were also an important source of inspiration. Pechstein also felt a connection to the simple, hard way of life of the fishermen and farmers, whose everyday life he observed closely there. Especially after the horrors, horror and deprivation of the First World War, Nidden became a place of personal and artistic rebirth during this summer sojourn in 1919: "In the spring of 1919, I went up to Nidden (...) Bang also before the reunion with the landscape and the people, which I had discovered in 1909 as a fertile new territory for me. Certainly, a lot had changed, but it was good to be greeted joyfully by my old fishing friends. The unfortunate war had left no impression on the waters of the lagoon and the Baltic Sea, on the changing abundance of light in this north-eastern strip of land, on this nature with its eternal rhythm and its changing harmony of colours depending on the season." (Quoted by Hermann Max Pechstein, in: "Erinnerungen", Stuttgart 1993, p. 106f.) Max Pechstein also describes his feelings in a letter dated 2 October 1919 to his friend and art historian Paul Fechter: "(...) truly yes, one could think I had died, I probably have, died in colours, canvases, pictures. Everything drowns in colour for me. My brain is filled only with images and the idea of what is to be painted chases me from one place to another. Never before have I experienced such a time, such a rebirth!". In 1922 Pechstein was honoured by his admission to the Prussian Academy of Arts. Watercolour a. pencil/drawing block paper. 1919. signed a. r. a. dat. 1919. 26.5 cm x 34.5 cm. Frame. With a photo expertise by Julia Pechstein, Hamburg, dated 12.9.2023. The watercolour is listed in the documentation of the Max Pechstein Urheberrechtsgemeinschaft under the title "Rotes Haus am Haff", 1919. Watercolour and pencil on paper. Signed and dated 1919. Accompanied by an expertise from Julia Pechstein, Hamburg, 12th of September 2023.