Lot 104: SERGIUS PAUSER* (Vienna 1896 - 1970 Klosterneuburg)

SERGIUS PAUSER*
(Vienna 1896 - 1970 Klosterneuburg)
Self portrait with mask, around 1926
oil/canvas, 60 x 73 cm
signed Sergius Pauser
exhibited in Belvedere, Vienna 1996 and Das Malschiff, Künstlerhaus 2007
depicted in Magic Realism: Art in Weimar Germany 1919 - 1913, Tate Modern, London 2019, p. 81
provenance: Private property, USA, Kunsthandel Schütz, Vienna 2008, private collection

ESTIMATE °€ 20.000 - 30.000
STARTING PRICE °€ 20.000

Sergius Pauser was an Austrian painter of landscapes, still lifes and portraits. He studied in Munich from 1919 to 1924 and at the Vienna Academy under Karl Sterrer from 1925 to 1926. During this time he was particularly impressed by the artistic work of Max Beckmann, Otto Dix and Karl Hofer. In 1925 he returned to Vienna, studied at the Academy of Art for another three months, and in 1927 became a member of the Vienna Secession. In 1932 he received the Austrian State Prize. Study trips took him to Italy, France and Switzerland in 1938, where he was strengthened in his realistic-expressive painting style. Initially oriented to Expressionism, he turned to the strict style of the New Objectivity from the later 1920s, later he again used a more relaxed style of painting. In a letter addressed to Rudolf Hermann Eisenmenger (1940), Pauser reports an incident during an exhibition at the "Haus der deutschen Kunst" in Munich, where Hitler, enraged, had taken down paintings by Pauser. However, in 1939 Pauser was again represented at the Great German Art Exhibition with a panel painting that corresponded to the artistic taste of the Nazis ("Frau Hilda Trenker"). In 1943 Pauser took over the direction of the master school for portrait painting at the Academy. Asked back to Vienna in 1945 by the city councilor for cultural and popular education Viktor Matejka, he was appointed professor in 1947. In the post-war period he was a portrait painter in demand. He made the portraits of many politicians and actors and received awards and honors. A scandal occurred in 1955 when Pauser was commissioned by the Austrian government to paint the signing of the Austrian State Treaty at Belvedere Palace. The first painting was rejected and purchased by the Federal Ministry for Education and the Arts. Sergius Pauser created a second and third version of his oil sketch made on the spot. The rather impressionistic work was rejected by Federal Chancellor Julius Raab. The commission for a painting of the State Treaty was given to Robert Fuchs. Pauser's work was shown in a major retrospective at the Österreichische Galerie in 1996.

PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.