Josef Scharl (1896-1954), Portrait Of A Man, 1937 (1964)

Josef Scharl (1896 Munich - 1954 New York), Portrait of a Man, 1937 (1964), Bronner 43 A. Woodcut on Japanese paper, 44 cm x 30.5 cm (image), 63 cm x 46.5 cm (sheet size), signed “J[osef] Scharl” lower left in the printing block, inscribed below in lead as copy no. 3 / 40 and with Joseph Scharl's estate stamp on the reverse. This is a reprint from the original printing block made by Galerie Nierendorf in 1964.
- slight creases in the left corners and mounting residue on the reverse, otherwise in excellent, fresh condition  



- Lost in Black -  


Josef Scharl created this portrait of a man in 1937, one year before he emigrated to the United States. The large-format woodcut has a deep black background that merges with the sitter's bust. His face, too, is crisscrossed with black areas, and his eyes look at the viewer with a sad, resigned expression. Our slight view from above means that the sitter does not define the space. He seems to be lost in the dark, while the bright area next to his head and the light areas of his face make the darkness seem even more intense. Josef Scharl painted this portrait shortly before he was forced to leave Germany, which is why it can also be described as a self-portrait.



About the artist

In addition to training as a decorative painter, which he began in 1910, Josef Scharl attended evening classes in nude painting. After his military service from 1915 to 1918, he studied at the Munich Art Academy from 1919 to 1921 under Angelo Jank and Heinrich von Zügel. However, he turned his back on the academy and joined the Munich New Secession in 1923 and the artists' association 'Die Juryfreien' in 1929. During these years Scharl became a recognized artist, which was reflected in the awarding of the Dürer Prize of the City of Nuremberg (1929), the Rome Prize of the Berlin Academy of Art (1930), the Prize of the Munich Academy (1931), and the Förderpreis of the City of Essen (1932). The Rome Prize enabled him to spend extended periods in Rome and Paris from 1930 to 1932. As a member of the Deutscher Künstlerbund, he participated in its annual exhibitions from 1930 to 1936. After the National Socialists seized power, Scharl's works were still shown in solo exhibitions at the renowned Neumann-Nierendorf Gallery in Berlin until 1935, but the artist was increasingly subjected to reprisals and emigrated to the USA via Switzerland without his family in 1938. He was motivated to do so by an invitation from the Museum of Modern Art to exhibit together with Max Beckmann, Georg Scholz, Erich Heckel and Karl Hofer. In the USA, Scharl was supported by Albert Einstein, with whom he was on friendly terms and who wrote a memorial speech after the artist's death in 1954. In 1945, Karl Nierendorf published Scharl's first American monograph and presented his drawings in his New York gallery. Through Wolfgang Sauerländer, the artist illustrated the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm for the publisher ‘Pantheon Books’. The book, published in 1944, enjoyed great popularity and led to further follow-up commissions. Josef Scharls became a US citizen in 1952 and died two years later.