Jankel Adler (1895-1949)
Jankel Adler (1895-1949)

Reclining figure in red

Details
Jankel Adler (1895-1949)
Reclining figure in red
watercolour
7¼ x 11 in. (18.4 x 27.9 cm.)
Provenance
Alistair McAlpine.
Felix Man.
with Mercury Gallery, London, where purchased by the present owner's husband, 20 February 1998 and by descent.

Lot Essay

Adler was central to the generation of twentieth-century Anglo-Jewish artists which included Bomberg (lots 58, 60-62), Kramer (lots 63 and 65) and Meninsky (lot 69). Born in Poland in 1895, he made his artistic career in Germany. He was a member of the most prominent contemporary movements of the period and a frequent contributor to publications about modern Jewish Art. He exhibited alongside major figures of the German avant-garde such as Max Ernst, Otto Dix and Paul Klee. As a Polish Jew and a Socialist, Adler was forced to leave Germany when the Nazis gained power in 1933. His work was included in the infamous Entartete Kunst exhibition which toured Germany between 1937-8. After sharing a studio in Paris with Otto Abel where he met Picasso and Hayter and was influenced by the 'Abstraction-Creation' group, he fled the continent for Scotland in 1941 with the remains of the Polish Free Army. He moved to London in 1943. He brought with him a variety of European influences which contributed to the development of British Art of the 1940s.

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