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Lot Essay
Roland Widder has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Herbert Gurschner’s father was a wine dealer and for many years had a typical Austrian wine bar. According to Roland Widder, this is likely to have inspired the artist to paint this picture.
Gurschner’s compositions from the 1920s strongly recall the expressionistic colour and mannerism of El Greco, revered for his inventive uniqueness by many Modern artists. As remarked by Desmond Chapman-Huston: In all Gurschner’s crowded canvasses you will find El Greco’s unfailing upwardness; if the Greek takes us out and beyond ourselves, in doing so he never fails to bear us heavenward as do Gothic spires. (…) Gurschner has something of this unique magic and, although he does not at present know it he adores, and freely uses, El Greco’s soft yellow-green half-ripe lemon; he has also the master’s love for, understanding of, and skill in painting hands; he has much of El Greco’s living movement; he is not static or dead. But vibrating – vibrating without glamour or noise, reposeful... (C. & R. Widder, Herbert Gurschner, Ein Tiroler in London, Innsbruck, 2000, pp. 42-43).