(Berlin 1856–1925)
“Wintertag an der Memel”, old title on the reverse and inscribed with no. 17, signed, dated W. Moras, Memelufer bei Unter-Eisseln 18./3. (18)89, oil on board, 24 x 39 cm, framed

We are grateful to André Matthes and Alfried Nehring for the scholarly advice.

Walter Moras travelled to East Prussia in 1889. In the Memel region north of Königsberg he created a series of paintings, to which the present lot belongs. A walker with a dog is visible in the lonely snowy landscape of the Memel shore. The masts of the boats in the background emphasise the connection between land and sky. Some of the paintings from East Prussia were presented at art exhibitions the following year. In his later creative years, Moras moved away from open-air painting and preferred to work in his studio.

There is comparatively little information about the life of the painter Walter Moras. He completed his artistic training in the Berlin studio of the landscape painter Hermann Eschke, who was known for his marine depictions. Moras also initially devoted himself to coastal, mainly Baltic, views. His oeuvre includes a large number of forest scenes, which he captured in the changing seasons. People are seldom to be seen in his landscape paintings; rather, he was fascinated by the solitude of lakes, ponds or moonlit nights. He found a versatile creative area for his painting en plein air on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen, among others, or just outside Berlin in the water-rich Spreewald. The capital of the German Empire, on the other hand, was of no artistic interest to Moras. He had already exhibited his works at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin by the age of 20; numerous art exhibitions were to follow over the course of his life. Why he never became a member of the ‘Verein Berliner Künstler’ is an unknown.
Walter Moras travelled to East Prussia in 1889. In the Memel region north of Königsberg he created a series of paintings, to which the present lot belongs. A walker with a dog is visible in the lonely snowy landscape of the Memel shore. The masts of the boats in the background emphasise the connection between land and sky. Some of the paintings from East Prussia were presented at art exhibitions the following year. In his later creative years, Moras moved away from open-air painting and preferred to work in his studio.