Christmas Card

Details

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
Christmas Card
signed, dated and inscribed 'Merry Christmas and a happy new year Kurt Schwitters KS 44' (on the blue collage element)
collage, paper flap and coloured pencil on a photograph
7½ x 9 in. (19 x 23 cm.)
Executed in 1944

Provenance

Stefan & Franciszka Themerson, London, a gift from the artist, Christmas 1944.
Nicholas Wadley, London, a gift from the above in 1988.

Literature

S. Themerson, Kurt Schwitters in England, London, 1958 (illustrated p. 7).
F. Lach & D. Marleau, Merz Opéra. Theatre-collage, Montreal, 1988 (illustrated).
K. Orchard & I. Schulz (eds.), Kurt Schwitters, Catalogue raisonné, vol. 3, 1937-1948, Hanover, 2003, no. 3083 (illustrated p. 435).

Exhibited

New York, Ubu Gallery, Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948). Collages, Paintings, Drawings, Objects, Ephemera, April - May 2003, no. 28 (illustrated).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

View condition report

Lot Essay

Kurt Schwitters met Stefan and Franciszka Themerson in Jankel Adler's studio in London in 1944. Themerson, a Polish-born film-maker and author, had just settled in London with his wife having fled, like Schwitters, from Nazi-occupied Europe. The two men became close friends and that year Schwitters painted a portrait of Themerson (Orchard & Schulz no. 3076; Sprengel Museum, Hannover). After founding the Gaberbocchus Press, Themerson published a book on the artist in 1958, Kurt Schwitters in England 1940-1948, a copy of which accompanies this work.

More from Impressionist/Modern Works on Paper

View All