Western

1942 · 136644 — 1942. Original artwork from the Western Desert executed by Rommel's Kriegsmaler Wilhelm Wessel Three fine studies by Wilhelm Wessel Rommel's war artist Kriegsmaler executed in the field while serving as an officer with the Afrikakorps. Wessel 1904-1971 studied briefly with Kandinsky at the Bauhaus and then with Kurt Schwitters in Berlin. In 1924 he began a four-year journey through Turkey Greece Palestine and Egypt. From 1927 to 1931 studied Sumerian and Byzantine archaeology at the University of Berlin at the same time studying under expressionist painter Karl Hofer whose work was later branded as degenerate by the Nazis and included in their entartete kunst exhibition. Between 1931 and 1939 he taught art in Berlin and Westphalia. He served throughout the Second World War in France Russia North Africa and Italy initially as an officer with a Panzergrenadier regiment. In 1941 he was severely wounded during the opening of Operation Barbarossa and after recuperating joined Rommel in North Africa as a Kriegsmaler. His book Mit Rommel in der Wüste With Rommel in the Desert was published at Essen in 1943. At the conclusion of hostilities he was briefly a prisoner of war before resuming his career as an artist. "As a promoter of abstract art Wessel organized the first post-war German art exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. and took part in a number of group exhibitions" from Venice to Tokyo and "had solo exhibitions in Berlin Wüppertal Wiesbaden Vienna Stuttgart Munich Paris and elsewhere" Benezit. He was the first chairman of the West German Artists' Federation and as such sponsored an early exhibition of American art in Düsseldorf in 1956. Some of his war prints were loaned to NATO in Brussels. Provenance: acquired in 1975 from the artist's widow Irmgard Wessel-Zumloh 1907-1980 herself an accomplished artist by an American army veteran J. William Keithan Jr. 1925-2010. Keithan served with the 42nd "Rainbow" Division and after the war had a long career as an executive with the Westin Hotel chain in charge of the design and construction of over 50 hotels around the world. He has provided a 3-page typed account of the acquisition of this group in which he says: "We talked of many things. Of how General Rommel and Wessel were good friends and how after World War II Frau Rommel and son Manfred were frequently visitors to her home in Iserlohn. She was adamant in her refusal to sell or contribute any of Wessel's work to the German people or the German government". Together with a substantial album comprising 39 photographs of Wessel's war images acquired from the Canadian War Museum and Archives of New Zealand. Auction records for Wessel's post-war work are plentiful but we have not found a single example of any of his original war art appearing at auction or being otherwise offered for sale. Charcoal pastel and pencil drawings. The group comprises: a Original black-and-white charcoal drawing on pale grey paper signed "Wih. Wessel 42" measuring 460 x 590 mm; inscribed lower left corner in pencil "Hinter den Stützpunkten bei Eluel El-Aggara" "Behind the bases at Eluel El-Aggara"; Al 'Aqqarah Libya lies some 100 km west of Tobruk. An attractive and atmospheric evocation of the Libyan desert at dusk: against a low horizon a column of German lorries negotiates hills and scrubby terrain plumes of smoke billow in the distance. Reproduced in Mit Rommel in der Wüste colour plate 15. b Original coloured pastel drawing unsigned and untitled; image: 330 x 465 mm mounted overall: 500 x 620 mm. A striking image of a desert dawn patrol by three German armoured vehicles two Sd. Kfz. 222 scout cars and a Sd. Kfz. 231 armoured car their wheels kicking up sand; the low horizon line rising sun and big sky with flaring white cloud make for a most dramatic picture. Not reproduced in Mit Rommel in der Wüste and presumably unpublished. c Original pencil drawing signed "Wessel 42" entitled "German Soldiers Talking" inscribed in pencil on mount; image: 235 x 350 mm mounted framed and glazed overall: 410 x 570 mm. Label on verso noting its purchase from Wessel's widow in 1975. Reproduced as a half-page illustration in Mit Rommel in der Wüste p. 45. All pieces in excellent condition. unknown