Oil on canvas. (1917/1925). Approx. 76 x 62.5 cm. Signed with the artist's monogram in ligature on the lower edge, almost centrally. Signed again on the reverse and inscribed ‘Munich 1917 Repainted Lawrence 1925’.
Albert Bloch (Kansas / Missouri, 1882-1961) The Spangled Motley 1952 Mosaic in a visual, structural and conceptual sense, this work by the pioneering American modernist Albert Bloch is signed lower left front; and further signed, titled and dated in the artist's hand verso near the inscription Lawrence. Painted during his time in Lawrence, Kansas, this work ranks among the finest examples of Bloch's late-period paintings to appear at auction. It relates closely to the groundbreaking avant-garde works he produced in Germany prior to World War I, paintings that decisively broke with academic convention and foreshadowed the shift toward abstraction, a movement that would ultimately reshape twentieth-century art. Special thanks to Dr. David Cateforis, Bloch scholar and professor of art history at the University of Kansas for the following essay: A splendid example of Albert Bloch's late work, Spangled Motley vividly manifests his lifelong fascination with clowns and figures from the commedia dell'arte, a form of popular theater that flourished in Europe from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries and whose stock characters remain familiar today. Harlequin, the best-known of these figures, occupies the left side of the composition. Shown full-length from the back, he wears his signature tricorn hat, half-mask, and tight-fitting motley costume patterned with diamond shapes. He holds a batte, or slapstick-a hinged wooden device used to create a loud cracking sound and a comic prop Harlequin famously wielded. Harlequin turns toward a circus clown wearing a tall blue conical hat, a baggy white costume, and an oversized glove, who grins directly at the viewer with a heavily made-up face. A brown-and-black orb, possibly the moon, glows in the sky at upper right, while stylized plants fill the composition's margins. Bloch's liberal use of white, characteristically combined with blues and earth tones in his paintings from the 1930s onward, gives the entire scene a glittering, spangled effect. Working wholly from his imagination, Bloch conjured this abstracted fantasy through the act of painting itself, applying thick paint with a freedom and confidence gained through decades at the easel. The Saint Louis-born Bloch depicted clowns and commedia dell'arte figures from the outset of his career in Munich, aligning him with contemporaries such as Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, and Georges Rouault, who also returned repeatedly to these subjects. All these modern artists used clowns to embody various states of feeling in a symbolic fashion removed from daily actuality. Harlequin appeared early in Bloch's art in one of the six canvases he exhibited in the first exhibition of der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) in 1911: Harlequinade, showing a leaping Harlequin surrounded by other clowns, now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He continued to paint clowns during his later decades in Kansas, including March of the Clowns (1941, Jewish Museum, New York), a World War II-era image of a circus parade led by a clown hoisting an effigy of Hitler dangling from a maypole. Painted eleven years later, Spangled Motley is quieter and more introspective, imbued with the haunting, visionary quality that characterizes Bloch's late work, when his art reached its greatest expressive intensity. Dr. David Cateforis, February, 2026. In January 2026, Harvard's Busch-Reisinger Museum announced a major acquisition of over 300 artworks by Albert Bloch, the sole American member of the Der Blaue Reiter Group of Expressionist Painters in Germany, just before WWI. The museum underscored the significance of this acquisition, and the gap it will fill in understanding Bloch's importance, with the statement, '' This transformational acquisition will make the Busch-Reisinger Museum the center for the study of the artist.' Canvas measures 35 x 20 with a framed size of 43 x 27 x 3.5 inches. Without proof of exemption, be aware that internet sales tax applies to all Internet transactions and local sales tax may apply to local pick-up transactions. We happily provide seamless in-house packing and shipping services on nearly everything we sell. Until further notice, we cannot offer international shipping in-house.
BLOCH, ALBERT 1882 St. Louis/Missouri - 1961 Lawrence/Kansas Title: Gebirgstunnel. Date: 1916. Technique: Oil on canvas. Measurement: 89 x 59,5cm. Notation: Monogrammed and dated lower right: AB (ligated) 1916. Frame/Pedestal: Craftman's frame. Provenance: - Gordon M. McCouch (1920 directly from the artist; label) - Private collection, Lausanne (1983) - Gertrude Blendinger Collection (1998) - Private collection, Switzerland - Christie's London, 7244th auction, 21st June 2006, lot 335 (label) - Kunsthaus Lempertz, 905th auction, 2nd June 2007, lot 529 (label) - Villa Grisebach Berlin, 281st auction, 30th November 2017, lot 20 (label) - Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia Exhibitions: - Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin, 1917 - Galerie Ludwig Schames, Frankfurt, 1917 - Kunsthaus Das Reich, Munich, 1918 - Daniel Gallery, New York 1921 - Museo Cantonale d'Arte Moderna, Lugano 1987 - Museo Communale d'Arte Moderna, Ascona 1992-1996; on loan from a private collection (label) - Frey-Näpflin Foundation, Stans 2006 (label) Literature: - Hoberg, Annegret/Adams, Henry (eds.): Albert Bloch - Ein amerikanischer Blauer Reiter, Munich 1997, p. 176 - Exhib. cat. Albert Bloch, Harald Kaufmann, Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin 1917, cat. no. 15 - Exhib. cat. Albert Bloch, Munich: A Selection of Paintings from the Last Five Years 1913-1918, Kunsthaus Das Reich, Munich 1918, cat. no. 8 (''Gebirgstunnel'') - Exhib. cat. Exhibition of Paintings by Albert Bloch, Daniel Gallery, New York 1921, cat. no. 11 - Exhib. cat. Il Ticino nella pittura europea, Museo Cantonale d'Arte Moderna, Lugano 1987, p. 120, ill. - Exhib. cat. So weit das Auge reicht - Landschaftsbilder aus vier Jahrhunderten, Frey-Näpflin-Stiftung, Stans 2005, p. 19, ill. - Bloch participated as the "amerikanische Stimme" in the first and second exhibitions of "Blauen Reiter" (1911 and 1912). - He was closely associated with Herwarth Walden and his Sturm gallery, which exhibited his work on several occasions. - "Gebirgstunnel" has an impressive exhibition history Estimated shipping costs for this lot: Arrangement after the auction. Explanations to the Catalogue Albert Bloch USA Blauer Reiter Modern Art 1910s Craftman's frame Mountains Painting Oil Landscape
Albert Bloch (Kansas / Missouri, 1882-1961) Circa 1910 The fine, rare and early drypoint is signed by Albert Bloch in pencil below the image lower right, and initialed in the plate upper left. Works by Albert Bloch rarely appear at auction. No record of this image having ever been offered could be found in any sources. To find an example from this earliest period in near mint condition is remarkable. Dr, David Cateforis Chair, History of Art Department, KU University in Lawrence, Kansas has provided an essay on the drypoint printmaking technique and the historical context of this print. A significant figure in the history of 20th-century art in the American Midwest, Albert Bloch headed the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas from 1923 to 1947. His main claim to art-historical fame, however, is as the only American artist to exhibit with the Munich-based expressionist group der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) in 1911 and 1912. Led by Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, the Blue Rider artists generally conceived of art as an elevated, spiritual calling - an attitude that Bloch embraced from the time of his association with the group. Born and raised in Saint Louis, Bloch studied at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts from 1898-1900 and started his career as an illustrator, cartoonist, and caricaturist, principally for the weekly Saint Louis magazine, The Mirror. He moved with his family to Munich in 1909 and continued to work as an illustrator for the next few years while he taught himself to paint by studying the Old Masters and modern French and German painting. Among the works Bloch created during his early years in Munich were several prints executed with the drypoint technique. In drypoint, the artist cuts lines into a metal printing plate using a needle with a sharp metal or diamond tip. The needle raises ridges of metal along the sides of the cut called the burr. Ink inheres in the incised lines and burr after the surface of the inked plate is wiped clean. The artist lays damp paper over the plate and runs it through a press to transfer the ink to the paper. The burr produces a slightly fuzzy line when printed. Bloch's observation of people in the streets of Munich's bohemian Schwabing quarter may have inspired his drypoint The Princess and the Beggar (1910). The setting is an urban environment with a background wall at the left and a spindly tree at the right. Bloch placed his early monogram, a combined blocky A and B, in the window. The striking composition features the imposing figure of a male beggar seated in the foreground, his hat in hand resting on his lap. With a hollow-eyed, open-mouthed, pleading expression, he looks in profile toward the willowy princess passing by in the middle ground. An implied diagonal line runs from the beggar's right shoulder and shadowed bare head to the tip of the princess's oversize hat, emphasizing the contrast between their social and economic standing. The agitated lines around the beggar's back and head suggest his torment as the princess peers inscrutably in his direction. Will she help him or walk on by? Bloch provides no answer, inviting the viewer to imagine what will happen next. Image measures 8 x 10, sheet is 10 x 15 inches. Without proof of exemption, be aware that internet sales tax applies to all Internet transactions and local sales tax may apply to local pick-up transactions. We happily provide seamless in-house packing and shipping services on nearly everything we sell. Until further notice, we cannot offer international shipping in-house.
Albert Bloch (Kansas / Missouri, 1882-1961) Bar 1913 The fine and rare drypoint, numbered 16 from an edition of only 20 pulled, is signed by Albert Bloch in pencil below the image lower right and initialed in the plate lower left. Works by Albert Bloch rarely appear at auction. No record of this image having ever been offered could be found in any sources. An example from this period in near mint condition is remarkable. Dr. David Cateforis Chair, History of Art Department, KU University in Lawrence, Kansas has provided an essay on the technique of this print and its historical context. A significant figure in the history of 20th-century art in the American Midwest, Albert Bloch headed the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas from 1923 to 1947. His main claim to art-historical fame, however, is as the only American artist to exhibit with the Munich-based expressionist group der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) in 1911 and 1912. Led by Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, the Blue Rider artists generally conceived of art as an elevated, spiritual calling - an attitude that Bloch embraced from the time of his association with the group. Born and raised in Saint Louis, Bloch studied at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts from 1898-1900 and started his career as an illustrator, cartoonist, and caricaturist, principally for the weekly Saint Louis magazine, The Mirror. He moved with his family to Munich in 1909 and continued to work as an illustrator for the next few years while he taught himself to paint by studying the Old Masters and modern French and German painting. Among the works Bloch created during his early years in Munich were several prints executed with the drypoint technique. In drypoint, the artist cuts lines into a metal printing plate using a needle with a sharp metal or diamond tip. The needle raises ridges of metal along the sides of the cut called the burr. Ink inheres in the incised lines and burr after the surface of the inked plate is wiped clean. The artist lays damp paper over the plate and runs it through a press to transfer the ink to the paper. The burr produces a slightly fuzzy line when printed. The drypoint, Bar (1913), depicts the interior of a drinking establishment filled with male customers in hats and coats. A rotund bartender at the upper right center presides over the scene. He attends to the three men standing at the bar, which recedes along a diagonal drawing the eye to a group of three standing figures at the right. At the lower right, a smoking man in a bowler hat sits facing the viewer at a round table with a glass of wine. Sketchy lines in several areas of the men's bodies - such as across the back and right arm of the leftmost standing figure - were likely made by a scraper that Bloch used to make corrections in the plate, while a few zigzag lines along the upper left are abstract elements that suggest noise and energy. In amusing contrast to the happily imbibing men, a scrawny dog crouches on the floor next to a food or water bowl whose shadowed concave interior is a black ellipse. Bloch signed the plate at the lower left with his cursive monogram combining the letters A and B. Signs in English on the back wall suggest that this is an English or American bar rather than a German one. Perhaps Bloch included this verbiage as an ''exotic'' element that might appeal to German art buyers while making the print accessible to potential customers back in his home country. Bloch's informal composition creates a relaxed atmosphere that invites viewers to imagine themselves sitting at a table and enjoying a drink in this space, as Bloch himself may have done while observing or sketching it. Plate size 9.5 x 12, sheet measures 14.75 x 22, frame is 22 x 24.5 inches. Without proof of exemption, be aware that internet sales tax applies to all Internet transactions and local sales tax may apply to local pick-up transactions. We happily provide seamless in-house packing and shipping services on nearly everything we sell. Until further notice, we cannot offer international shipping in-house.
Albert Bloch (Kansas / Missouri, 1882-1961) Winter 1936 The oil on mounted canvas is signed and dated lower left front, and verso on the mount alongside the title Winter and inscription Lawrence. This work was exhibited at the Lawrence (Kansas) Art Center in 2015 and is displayed in the original artist's frame, Winter is from the artist's second important second period where he developed his expressive Regionalist style, participating in exhibitions with John Steuart Curry, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood and Birger Sandzen. Earlier, as the only American member of The Blue Rider group in avant-garde Munich, Germany, paintings from his first period were shown alongside that of the important groundbreaking Modernists Franz Marc, Vasily Kandinsky and, later, Paul Klee. Please see the essay below. Thank you to David Cateforis, KU Professor of Art History for the essay that follows, and to Scott Heffley, president of the Albert Bloch Foundation, who has confirmed for us that the frame this work is displayed in was made by Albert Bloch. He also confirms the medium of canvas mounted to Masonite is a Bloch trademark of the period, not a later alteration. Wearing his other hat as paintings conservator, Scott has confirmed the excellent condition of this painting and commented, ' Bloch uses white as a color to create electrified motion in the sky and landscape, much like Charles Burchfield did.' ALBERT BLOCH. b. 1882, Saint Louis, Missouri. d. 1961, Lawrence, Kansas. A significant figure in the history of 20th-century art in the American Midwest, Albert Bloch headed the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas from 1923 to 1947. His main claim to art-historical fame, however, is as the only American artist to exhibit with the Munich-based expressionist group der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) in 1911 and 1912. Led by Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, the Blue Rider artists generally conceived of art as an elevated, spiritual calling - an attitude that Bloch embraced from the time of his association with the group. Born and raised in Saint Louis, Bloch studied at the Saint Louis School of Fine Arts from 1898-1900 and started his career as an illustrator, cartoonist, and caricaturist, principally for the weekly Saint Louis magazine, The Mirror. He moved with his family to Munich in 1909 and continued to work as an illustrator for the next few years while he taught himself to paint by studying the Old Masters and modern French and German painting. Bloch made the oil painting, Winter (1936), in Lawrence, Kansas, some fifteen years after his return to the United States from Germany. During his time in Germany (1909-19, 1920-21), Bloch had assimilated the aesthetic innovations of Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, and Cubism in his painting. He exhibited widely in Germany and had a retrospective in 1921 at New York's Daniel Gallery. However, after securing his teaching position in Kansas, Bloch largely withdrew from the art world, exhibiting only by invitation. He was content to draw and paint without pursuing sales because he viewed art as an elevated calling transcending the capitalist-driven materialism of modern American life. Working in relative isolation in Lawrence, heedless of the fashionable trends in American art, Bloch in the 1930s developed a highly personal painting style of great expressive force using a palette of earth colors and cold blues overlaid with white. His study of older art and his observation of nature nourished his creativity, but he did not seek to reproduce what he saw; he worked from memory and imagination, enriched by visual discoveries made in the process of painting. This is the case with Winter: it does not represent a specific landscape though it must have been partly inspired by Bloch's observations of the rural Midwest. The horizontal composition shows a hilly, snow-covered terrain with a few limbless trees and scrubby foliage scattered around two rutted paths that cross in the lower left center. The more steeply rising path leads the eye to a lonely red house flanked by evergreen trees on a hilltop at the upper right center. Passages of blue throughout the painting impart a chilly quality while agitated strokes of white in the sky suggest blustery winds. We may sense in the limbless trees an echo of the forests devastated by the fighting of World War I, which Bloch lived through in Germany. The vision of a cold, stark, comfortless landscape also resonates with the mood of the Great Depression, which hung like a pall over the United States in the mid-1930s. However, the alignment of the foremost tree trunk's right edge with the painting's vertical axis creates a sense of stability and, ultimately, endurance. After winter, spring will come - and with it, renewal. David Cateforis. Professor and Chair of Art History, The University of Kansas. Board measures 17.25 x 27.5 with a framed size of 19.5 x 29.5 inches. Without proof of exemption, be aware that internet sales tax applies to all Internet transactions and local sales tax may apply to local pick-up transactions. We happily provide seamless in-house packing and shipping services on nearly everything we sell. Until further notice, we cannot offer international shipping in-house.
Property of the Descendants of Herman Spertus Albert Bloch 1882 - 1961 Der Tänzer Sacharoff (The Dancer Sacharoff) signed with the initials AB (lower right); signed Bloch (on the stretcher); inscribed Sacharoff and dated Jan. 1912 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 41 ½ by 26 ¼ in. 105.4 by 66.7 cm. Executed in January 1912.
Property from the Descendants of Herman Spertus Albert Bloch 1882 - 1961 Der Tänzer Sacharoff (The Dancer Sacharoff) signed with the initials AB (lower right); signed Bloch (on the stretcher); titled and dated Jan. 1912 (on the reverse) oil on canvas 41 ½ by 26 ¼ in. 105.4 by 66.7 cm. Executed in 1912.
Albert Bloch (1882-1961 Kansas) "Pierrot" Pastel Drawing, 1908. Pastel on heavy cardboard. Drawing used as the cover of Reedy's Mirror Magazine, Thursday March 5, 1908. A rare drawing by the only American artist associated with Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) depicting commedia dell'arte character Pierrot, the sad clown, playing a flute. Inscribed "To Mrs Adele M. Ballard with the best of wishes Albert Bloch April- 1908" at lower left corner. Painting comes with handwritten letter to Mrs Ballard of Seattle, Washington on Albert Bloch letterhead dated May 31, 1908. Letter includes 5 pages of correspondence and pen drawing of man smoking a pipe. Artwork measures 20x8.5". Framed with overall dimensions of 28.5x17". Loose in frame, some wear at corners, overall great condition.
Oil on canvas. (1917/1925). Ca. 76 x 72.5 cm. With conjoined monogram on the lower edge, almost in the centre. Monogrammed several times on the reverse and inscribed “Munich 1917 Repainted Lawrence 1925”. • One of the few surviving paintings from the early period • Work by the only American member of the “Blaue Reiter” • Influenced by Kandinsky, Marc, Klee and Campendonk The authenticity of this work has been kindly confirmed by Professor David Cateforis, University of Kansas, USA.
ALBERT BLOCH (1882-1961) Head of a Clown signed with the artist's monogram (lower right) oil on canvas 11 x 8 1/16 in (28 x 20.5 cm) Painted circa 1911
Albert Bloch American (Missouri), 1882-1961 The Old Mansion Ink on paper Signed, titled, and dated 1922 lower right. Naïve style street scene with figures and animals in the road before a mansion set behind trees in the distance. Matted behind glass, painted wooden frame with paperwork on the piece and the artist attached to verso.
Tusche und Bleistift auf festem, chamoisfarbenem Velin. 1914. Ca. 46,5 x 34,5 cm. Datiert unten links „14 Februar 1914“. Vereinzelte schwache Fleckchen, kleine Knickspuren an den Blattecken, obere rechte Ecke mit winzigem Nadellöchlein, geringfügige Griffknicke. Insgesamt in guter Erhaltung. Taxation: regelbesteuert (VAT: Regular Taxation)
”Charikleia in Memoriam” Monogrammed upper left: AB. Monogrammed, dated, titled and inscribed in grey-green brush on the reverse: from / Lawrence / 1958 "CHARIKLEIA IN MEMORIAM" (M. V. L. - NOV. 1879: JUNE 1958) Bloch, Albert
BLOCH, ALBERT 1882 St. Louis, MO/USA - 1961 Lawrence, KS/USA Title: Hügelige Landschaft. Date: 1932. Technique: Aquarell auf Velin. Mounting: 40 x 40cm. Auf Karton aufgezogen (57 x 57,5cm). Notation: Monogrammiert und datiert unten links: AB (ligiert) 1932. Frame/Pedestal: Rahmen. Die Authentizität dieses Werkes wurde von Herrn Prof. David Cateforis, Lawrence, KS/USA, bestätigt. Wir danken Herrn Prof. Cateforis für die ausführliche wissenschaftliche Unterstützung. Provenienz: Walter Bloch, USA; Privatsammlung USA. Ausstellungen: Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Cambridge, MA/USA, 1955, Nr. 1 (Aufkleber).
BLOCH, ALBERT 1882 St. Louis/Missouri - 1961 Lawrence/Kansas Title: Blumenstück. Date: 1915. Technique: Oil on canvas. Measurement: 56 x 38,5cm. Notation: Monogrammed lower centre: AB (ligated). Frame/Pedestal: Framed. The authenticity of this work was confirmed by Prof. David Cateforis, Lawrence, KS/USA. We thank Prof. Cateforis for the detailed scientific support. Provenance: - W.K. Bixby, Saint Louis, USA (according to the artist's workbook) - Artist's estate - Private collection USA Exhibition: - Galerie Der Sturm, Berlin 1916 (verso remains of a label) Literature: - Artist's workbook, no. 55 (ill.).
BLOCH, ALBERT 1882 St. Louis/Missouri - 1961 Lawrence/Kansas Title: "Bernard". Date: 1913. Measurement: 48,2 x 39,3cm. Notation: Monogrammed lower right: AB (ligated). Partly illegiblely inscribed, dated and titled verso: B/Obermenzing 2-VII-13 "Bernard" 1913. Additionally two numeric imprints on the stretcher: 936 und 29. Frame/Pedestal: Framed. The authenticity of this work was confirmed by Prof. David Cateforis, Lawrence, KS/USA. We thank Prof. Cateforis for the kind, detailed scientific support. Provenance: - Artist's estate - Private collection USA.
BLOCH, ALBERT 1882 St. Louis/Missouri - 1961 Lawrence/Kansas Title: "Clouds and Houses" (Häusergruppe). Date: 1917/1925. Technique: Oil on canvas. Measurement: 76 x 72,5cm. Notation: Monogrammed in the lower margin: AB (ligated). Monogrammed once more verso. Here additionally inscribed: Munich 1917 Repainted Lawrence 1925. Frame/Pedestal: Framed. The authenticity of this work was confirmed by Prof. David Cateforis, Lawrence, KS/USA. We thank Prof. Cateforis for his kind, scientific support. Provenance: - Bernard Bloch, USA - University of Kansas, School of Fine Arts (label) - Private collection, USA Literature: - Workbook of the artist, no. 83 (ill., here titled: Häusergruppe).
[*] "Herren & Herren" Feder in Schwarz und Kreide in Blau auf leichtem Karton. Um 1915. 31,8 x 40 cm. Unten mittig innerhalb der Darstellung mit Feder in Schwarz signiert "Albert Bloch", oben mittig betitelt, verso mit Kreide in Blau nochmals signiert, bezeichnet "München" sowie "M 149350". Klofrauen sitzen mit Strickzeug und Bier vor der Herrentoilette. Neben seinen Studien an der St. Louis School of Fine Arts arbeitete Bloch als Illustrator für die satirische Zeitung "The Mirror", seit 1908 lebte er in München, schloss sich hier 1911 dem Künstlerkreis Der Blaue Reiter an und wurde von der Galerie "Der Sturm" ausgestellt. Sein Stil, geprägt von antiakademischer Schlichtheit, zeigt in diesen Jahren besonders Einflüsse von Franz Marc und Paul Klee, aber auch Heinrich Campendonk. Bloch war immer sehr selbstkritisch. Er zerstörte jedes Bild, das er für unvollkommen hielt. Viele seiner Werke fielen in der NS-Zeit der Aktion "Entartete Kunst" zum Opfer, so dass nur wenige frühe Arbeiten des Künstlers erhalten sind. Verso eine weitere Zeichnung des Künstlers, Kopfstudie eines bärtigen Mannes. - Wir bitten darum, Zustandsberichte zu den Losen zu erfragen, da der Erhaltungszustand nur in Ausnahmefällen im Katalog angegeben ist. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalogue.
Artist: Albert Bloch; Medium: Original oil painting on canvas (Missouri/Kansas) untitled landscape; Era or Year Produced: 1947; Sight Area Approximate Measurement: 18" x 22"; Frame Approximate Measurement: 23" x 27";Signature: Monogram signature center bottom. Note: Heritage, Sotheby's and Christie's New York and London, Cologne, 2 June, 2007, date on stretcher verso. Keywords: Art Paintings Ref: JE13233
Albert Bloch (1882-1961) "The Forgotten Garden"Artist: Albert Bloch; Medium: Original oil painting on canvas (Missouri/Kansas) untitled landscape; Era or Year Produced: 1947; Sight Area Approximate Measurement: 18" x 22"; Frame Approximate Measurement: 23" x 27";Signature: Monogram signature center bottom. Note: Heritage, Sotheby's and Christie's New York and London, Cologne, 2 June, 2007, date on stretcher verso.
ALBERT BLOCH (American, 1882-1961) Pierrot, 1911 Oil on canvas 26-3/4 x 17-1/2 inches (67.9 x 44.5 cm) Signed upper left: Albert Bloch Dated verso: October / 1911 PROPERTY FROM THE KING COLLECTION, TEXAS PROVENANCE: The artist; Estate of the above; Mrs. Albert Bloch, the artist's wife, Kansas, by bequest from the above; [With] Scott Heffley, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York; Private collection, Kansas; Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York; Acquired by the present owner from the above, October 2002. EXHIBITED: Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, "Concerning Expressionism: American Modernism and the German Avant-Garde," May 20-July 31, 1998; El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, "Modern American Painting 1907-1936: The Maria and Barry King Collection," September 8, 2013-January 8, 2014, no. 21. LITERATURE: H. Adams, M. Conrads and A. Hoberg, eds. [with] Hollis Taggart Galleries, New York, Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider, Munich, 1997, pp. 27-28, illustrated; Hollis Taggart Galleries, Concerning Expressionism: American Modernism and the German Avant-Garde, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1998, p. 41, pl. 13, illustrated; P.S. Cable, Modern American Painting 1907-1936: The Maria and Barry King Collection, exhibition catalogue, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, 2013, pp. 68-70, no. 21, illustrated. The only American artist associated with the German modernist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), Albert Bloch is known for Expressionist figurative paintings infused with spiritual feeling. Throughout his career, Bloch destroyed any paintings that, from his point of view, were unsuccessful. Regrettably, many more early works in German collections were destroyed in the bombings of World War II, while others were banished to Switzerland by the Nazis as "degenerate art." Extant examples of his work from this early period are rare and valuable historical documents. Pierrot, from 1911, is one of Bloch's earliest known surviving Modernist paintings. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, of Czechoslovakian and German-Jewish ancestry, Albert Bloch spent his formative years in the Midwest. He first studied art at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts. Like many of his contemporaries, Bloch earned a living from commercial art, and between 1905 and 1908, he worked as a caricaturist and illustrator for William Marion Reedy's literary and political weekly, The Mirror. Noticing Bloch's artistic talent, Reedy provided him with a monthly stipend to study abroad. At the beginning of 1909, Bloch sailed for Europe. Between 1909 and 1921, Bloch lived and worked mainly in Germany, making brief visits to other countries on the Continent and to America. His decision to settle in Munich, then a thriving art center, rested largely on his language skills--he had learned German from his parents. Although Reedy pressed Bloch to attend classes at the Royal Bavarian Academy in Munich, Bloch never enrolled, preferring instead to take lessons from painters working in the academic style outside the academy. Initially Bloch displayed little interest in the revolutionary aesthetics that had been advanced in European art around the turn of the century, but a 1910 trip to Paris opened his eyes to the works of Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Odilon Redon. The following year, he saw a catalogue of the second exhibition of the Neue Künstlervereinigung München (the New Artists' Union of Munich), which included reproductions of works by, among others, Picasso, Georges Braque, Georges Rouault, and Wassily Kandinsky. Bloch felt an immediate kinship with these artists. He soon met Kandinsky and Franz Marc, both of whom invited him to participate in the first exhibition of Der Blaue Reiter, a group of Modernist artists who broke away from Neue Künstlervereinigung. With his contribution of six canvases, Bloch was the only American represented in the show, which was held in December 1911 at Munich's Thannhauser Gallery. The Blaue Reiter artists had no formal manifesto, but they shared a desire to express emotional and spiritual truth through painting and, in particular, through symbolic use of color. The group, active from 1911 to 1914, represents one current in the broader expressionist impulse that spread through Germany and beyond in the first half of the twentieth century. Bloch established a successful career in Germany and remained there, exhibiting his work through World War I. In 1912, he showed at the second Blaue Reiter exhibition, and he was included in the 1912 Sonderbund Exhibition in Cologne, the most famous exhibition of modernism in Europe at that time. The only painting by Bloch accepted for this show was Duel (fig. 1), a 1912 painting that recalls Edvard Munch's haunting and mysterious figurative works. That same year, Bloch showed at Herwarth Walden's Der Sturm Gallery in Berlin, participating in a small exhibition that featured paintings rejected from the Sonderbund exhibit. Walden, one of the foremost proponents of Modernism in Europe, fashioned this 1912 exhibition as a protest against the Sonderbund show that, he believed, had not adequately represented members of the Blaue Reiter group. Bloch's acclaim also reached the American art world. At Kandinsky's recommendation, Arthur Jerome Eddy, the Chicago collector and tireless promoter of Modernism, began buying Bloch's paintings and eventually added more than twenty-five of them to his collection. In 1915, Eddy's collection of paintings by Bloch composed one-man show at the Art Institute of Chicago; the exhibition also traveled to the St. Louis Art Museum. In 1921, disheartened at what Germany had become after the war, Bloch returned to the United States, where he lived until his death in 1961. Finding himself in dire financial straits, Bloch decided to become a teacher. His first position began in 1922 at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, but lasted only one year. From 1923 until his retirement in 1947, Bloch was Professor and Head of the Department of Drawing and Painting at the University of Kansas, Lawrence. Bloch continued to live in Lawrence until his death in 1961. Painted in October 1911 at the start of Bloch's immersion into the Blaue Reiter, "Pierrot treats one of the artist's favorite themes, a figure from the Italian commedia dell'arte that is frequently associated with French art of the early twentieth century. Pierrots, harlequins, and clowns recurred throughout Bloch's oeuvre, alternating with religious scenes, landscapes and cityscapes...In the present canvas, Pierrot's upper body and large hands bend in an awkwardly sentient manner amidst the turbulent brushwork of the background, almost like a plant or similar life form reacting to unseen stimuli. The emotive body recalls the following words used to describe Bloch's figures in 1913: 'misshapen, embryonic creatures...intense postures of love or yearning'" (P.S. Cable, Modern American Painting 1907-1936: The Maria and Barry King Collection, exhibition catalogue, El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, Texas, 2013, p 70). Indeed, Bloch's Pierrot encapsulates the fearless and unabashed spirit of one of the most avant-garde, yet obscure American Modernists.
Original oil painting on canvas by Albert Bloch (Missouri/Kansas) untitled landscape, the image measuring 18" x 22", framed measuring 23" x 27", monogram signature center bottom. Reference: Sotheby's and Christie's New York and London, Cologne, 2 June, 2007, date on stretcher verso
Original oil painting on canvas mounted on masonite by Albert Bloch (Missouri/Kansas) entitled "The Blind Man", the image measuring 40" x 36", framed measuring 46.25" x 42.5", monogram signature. Reference: #42, Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider, Prestel, p.211, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 26 January-16 March 1997
Two Figures, A Fence and Buildings (House at Night) Circa 1913, Dry point print on paper, sight area 8" by 10.5" and framed at 22.5 by 24.5 inches. Excellent. Reference: #17 Bloch, The University of Kansas Museum of Art, April 1963. Catalogue #82, #78, Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider.
BLOCH Albert (1882-1951) (?). Huile sur toile "Le tournesol". Monogrammé au dos "AB" pour Albert Bloch (?) et daté (19)21. Ecole américaine. (Au dos, une étiquette de "Raymond & Raymond", Fine Art Publishers, New York). Dim.:80x59.5cm.
Albert Bloch (American, 1882-1961) Blue Landscape Monogrammed and dated "AB 1936" l.l., inscribed and dated on a label affixed to the backing. Watercolor on paper, sheet size 15 7/8 x 19 3/4 in. (40.3 x 50.2 cm), framed. Condition: Mounted to mat board, toning, monogram partially reinforced. Provenance: From the artist to Morton L. Deitch (partner at Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, New York City), by family descent. N.B. We wish to thank Mrs. Anna Francis Bloch for confirming the authenticity of this work.
The Cool of the Evening, 1949 signed with monogram (lower left), and further signed with monogram, inscribed, dated and titled (on the reverse) oil on canvas 24 x 18in (61 x 45.7cm)
Unframed oil on masonite impressionistic view of a rain squall on opposite hill with castle like structure. A road bisects the scene with tall thin trees. Monogrammed "AB" lower right. Back having some framing instructions. SIZE: 18-3/4" x 15-1/4". CONDITION: Good. 9-97301
Unframed oil on masonite impressionistic view of a rain squall on opposite hill with castle like structure. A road bisects the scene with tall thin trees. Monogrammed "AB" lower right. Back having some framing instructions. SIZE: 18-3/4" x 15-1/4". CONDITION: Good. 9-97301
Albert Bloch (1882-1961) Pastorale signed with monogram 'B' (lower center); signed with initial, inscribed, dated twice and titled 'B/Lawrence 1948 "Pastorale" (Fall of '48)' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 20 x 35½ in. (51 x 90 cm.) Painted in Lawrence, Fall 1948
BLOCH, ALBERT (St. Louis 1882 - 1961 Lawrence) Seashore with sailing ship. Oil on canvas. Monogrammed lower right and dated: AB 1916 - 1921. 38 x 56 cm. CHF 6 000.- / 8 000.- € 3 880.- / 5 170.-
Talbild, nachts (Night in the Valley) signed with the monogram (lower left) oil on canvas 253/4 x 301/2in. (66.5 x 77.5cm.) Painted in 1915-1917 PROVENANCE Dr Walter Dexel, Braunschweig, by whom acquired from the artist. Professor Dr Thomas Dexel, by descent from the above. Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1990. LITERATURE Exh. cat. Albert Bloch: The American Blue Rider, Munich, 1997, pp. 70 & 174-5 (illustrated p. 70). NOTES David Cateforis has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.
