Back in 1910, Max Pechstein was thrifty (and impoverished), so he often painted over a work, or painted pictures on both sides. This week one of those double sided paintings sold for $4.6m at the Ketterer Kunst Auction in Hamburg, the highest price paid for any auctioned art work in Germany this year. His wife posed nude for one side of the painting. On the other there is a vase and fruit. Pechstein favored the still life, and that’s the side he signed and dated.
It is not clear how one displays a two sided painting. For the still life, it is clear Pechstein was strongly influenced by Cezanne whose work he saw at an exhibit the year before. Posing with his wife was an Indian man, also nude, part of a series of 5 Pechstein did in that near primitive style, two of which are now in the St. Louis Art Museum.
