(Bzenec 1867–1916 Vienna)
“Martha Kurzweil am Ufer in Pont-Aven” (“Weiher”), c. 1900, inscribed on the reverse: Max Kurzweil, with handwritten label: Am Ufer von Pont-Aven ..., oil on canvas, 112 x 201 cm, framed

Literature:
Fritz Novotny/Hubert Adolph. Max Kurzweil. Ein Maler der Wiener Secession, Verlag Jugend und Volk, 1969, plate 7 (full-page colour ill.), no. 25 (without the stamp of the estate mentioned)
Hubert Adolph-Paburg. Max Kurzweil - ein Maler der Jahrhundert-wende. Alte und moderne Kunst, year 11, magazine 87, Vienna July/August, 1969, page 29, ill. 3

Exhibited:
Berliner Secession, 1900, no. 991 (label on stretcher)
23. Ausstellung der Secession Wien, 1905, no. 119
C. J. Wawra, 252. Kunstauktion, Versteigerung des künstlerischen Nachlass Max Kurzweils. Vienna, 16 October 1918, page 27, lot 88
Wien um 1900, Secession Wien (Malerei und Plastik), 1964, no. 74 - with the title “Weiher” and the note: Dargestellt ist die Frau des Künstlers am Ufer eines Weihers in der Bretagne.
Max Kurzweil. 1867–1916. 58. Wechselausstellung. Österreichische Galerie, Vienna, 30 November 1965 – 15 March 1966, page 26, no. 29 and colour plate I.

Provenance:
Sale C. J. Wawra, 252. Kunstauktion, Versteigerung des künstlerischen Nachlass Max Kurzweils. Vienna, 16 October 1918, lot 88
Art dealer Ferdinand Spany
Acquired from the above in 1963

...Around 1900 he created two large format paintings, which have been considered major works in his oeuvre for some time, as they represent two sides of his practice. One is the portrait of the artist’s wife on the bank of a forest pond near Pont-Aven (fig. 7). In this forest in the twilight, it is no longer a matter of explicit light painting in the Impressionist style, rather, here it is the colours themselves that become an expression of the light and mood. The shade that characterises the picture is no longer that of older paintings, in which a colour tone of its own dominates, nor is it the fundamentally neutral, unifying shadow of traditional chiaroscuro. Everything, how-ever, is still restrained, even the accentuation in the composition of the stretched frame.

From the aforementioned literature by Fritz Novotny / Hubert Adolph