(Bergneustadt 1864–1932 Munich)
Ducks in autumn reeds, signed A. Koester, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany, acquired in the late 1990’s;
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 25 May 2016, lot 36;
European Private collection.

Catalogued and illustrated in:
Ruth Stein, Hans Koester, Alexander Koester 1864–1932. Leben und Werk, Recklinghausen 1988, ill. 36, CR no. 627.

Alexander Koester, son of a stocking manufacturer, completed a pharmacist’s apprenticeship at the request of his parents. Upon completion of this, however, he did not take on his learned profession, but enrolled at the Karlsruhe Academy. There, under Karl Hoff and Claus Meyer, he graduated from his studies of art in 1885. He went on numerous trips and was soon able to secure his livelihood with his portrait and genre painting. In 1896 he moved to the South Tyrolean resort of Klausen, where ultimately his most fruitful period of creativity began, and he joined the ‘Klausner Kunstkolonie’. When painting in nature, he quickly discovered ducks as the preferred motif for his paintings. He observed these animals intensely to capture in his pictures the way in which the sun’s rays are reflected on their plumage. The resulting dynamic, atmospheric compositions ensured that success of this varied pictorial motif.
Even during his lifetime, his works gained great popularity, and numerous reproductions exist. For example, the present lot has been selected for the advertising of a four-colour print by Gebrüder Schmidt, Buch- und Steindruckfarben-Fabrik and illustrated in Theodor Goebel, Graphische Künste der Gegenwart, Stuttgart 1902. He was an outstanding representative of 19th century painting and was able to capture the liveliness of the ducks in his works with expressive brushstrokes.