(Breslau 1891–1945 Thorn, Poland)
“Der Zauberer und der Harlekin”, signed with the artist’s monogram and dated FS 1927, on the reverse a label stamped Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Wiener Secession and inscribed Dr. Franz Sedlacek “Der Zauberer und der Harlekin”, also stamped Deutsche Kunstge­meinschaft and numberd 1233, oil on board, 78 x 73 cm, framed

Franz Sedlacek was a chemist by training and a self taught artist.
As a chemist he did experiment with colour recipes which led in some works to early paint shrinkage and craquelure. Sedlacek is known to have restored some of his works himself early on.

Registered and illustrated:
Elisabeth Hintner, Franz Sedlacek. Werk und Leben 1891–1945, Karolingen Verlag, 1990, p. 44
Gabriele Spindler/Andreas Strohhammer, Franz Sedlacek. Monografie mit Verzeichnis der Gemälde, im Kinsky Editionen, Christian Brandstätter Verlag 2011, p. 29 (larger illustration) and catalogued p. 166/WV38 (with small illustration)

Literature:
Velhagen und Klasings Monatsheft, October 1927, p. 228 f. (ill.)

Illustration:
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ÖNB Digital,
https:/onb.digital/result/112AF87E - there titled: Harlekin ruft den Gelehrten / Harlequin Calling the Scholar

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany

...And I dipped my face
Into the light and into me,
And I dissolve in the I
And the I evaporates
And I remain above me:
Chemically pure and unsmudged,
New and beautifully crystallised.

Franz Sedlacek - from the poem "Ode to Me" (written at the age of 18)

....Multiple stylistic or iconographic parallels can be drawn between Franz Sedlacek and the work of Edward Hopper. This is why he, in particular, should be singled out from the ranks of American precisionists. 46 First of all, it should be noted that Sedlacek and Hopper, who probably never met in person, clearly shared some interests and stages of artistic development. Both had a graphic arts background, illustrated and worked for journals, were members of artists' associations (Sedlacek of Maerz since 1913, Künstlerhaus 1924, Wiener Secession 1927; Hopper of the Whitney Studio Club since 1914, National Institute of Arts and Letters 1945, the Reality group 1952), were interested in photography, liked to visit the cinema (Hopper is considered an absolute cinephile!) and enjoyed travelling by train and car.
Stylistically, Hopper presents himself as a realist at first glance; however, all his works show unexpected, sometimes bizarre breaks with reality that cannot be accidental.
All artists have searched for contemporary pictorial solutions to redefine or reinvent space since the great break with academic-traditional painting by the Impressionists in the 19th century.
The works of the 20th century painters in particular are characterised by the destabilisation of their depicted spaces and related contextual incoherence, which evokes uncertainty and unease in the viewer. Lighting and colour further dramatise the everyday; and the confused viewer searches the picture for the individual elements of a narrated story. A focus in Hopper's work is on the relationship between interior and exterior spaces and how they affect the people depicted in them. Franz Sedlacek always allows the gaze of his figures to be averted from the viewer, to flee the mostly dark, sparsely furnished interiors into the friendly, bright landscapes, even to "escape".

Elisabeth Hintner, in: Sedlacek 1990