拍品專文
This painting was made in circa 1930 and can be regarded as the second version of Leeuw in Interieur I from 1929, (C. Blotkamp, 1972, no. 4; Boymans-van Beuningen, 1995, no. 5) which was owned by Koch's friend and maecenas Mr T.J. Botke of Maastricht. The painting was not signed by the artist until 1972, when on the owners request Pyke Koch signed the work and inscribed it on the reverse. In the relatively small oeuvre of the artist, he often painted similar versions of themes which he favoured.
"The subject of the present work depicts two elements who have no reasonable connection: the architectural setting (in fact a part of Koch's house in Utrecht) and the lion, of which only back and tail are visible. The combination and the rather peculiar appearance of the lion evokes astonishment: although the subject is not impossible, it is very unlikely to be real. The work arouses a familiarity with the surrealism of Magritte and the pittura metafisica of Giorgio de Chirico.
Blending different realities is the main theme of Magritte's work, and in some of his early works his intervention into reality is rare and subtle and such paintings can be compared to Koch's "Leeuw in interieur" example of his technique. Sometimes linked to Magritte is the French Surrealist Pierre Roy and it is possible that one of this artist's paintings inspired Koch's "Leeuw in interieur". In 1926 Roy painted "The danger at the stairs", this shows a snake on a staircase similar to the lion in Koch's painting. The picture was published in an edition of Variétés in 1929 where Koch could have seen it.
Both paintings look like visions from a dream or memories mixed with fantasies. In Koch's painting the memory from long ago is a child's fantasy about wild animals in a house, the house depicted is that in which Koch lived at a later stage. This environment has been shown as concrete as possible by illusionistic means. The incidence of light, the double shadows on the walls and the reflections on the shiny floor of the room are carefully observed and reproduced; the lion has no reflection. It is a view from a different world that obeys other laws that those that rule our dimension. It is a view from a different world that obeys other laws than those that rule our dimension.
This painting was the last in which Koch showed realities in conjunction with an element of illusion this by introducing techniques such as a "Fremdkörper" in a well-known environment. Later he only used this technique in some of his satirical paintings. Afterwards in order to achieve a magical quality in his work he would only use details that would really be visible under normal circumstances. In such pictures the movement from image to reality is hardly noticeable. Often it is only the intrusive way the image is presented that gives the spectator the impression that he is confronted wtih a different dimension of reality from his own."(Blotkamp, op.cit., 1972, p. 67)
See colour illustration
"The subject of the present work depicts two elements who have no reasonable connection: the architectural setting (in fact a part of Koch's house in Utrecht) and the lion, of which only back and tail are visible. The combination and the rather peculiar appearance of the lion evokes astonishment: although the subject is not impossible, it is very unlikely to be real. The work arouses a familiarity with the surrealism of Magritte and the pittura metafisica of Giorgio de Chirico.
Blending different realities is the main theme of Magritte's work, and in some of his early works his intervention into reality is rare and subtle and such paintings can be compared to Koch's "Leeuw in interieur" example of his technique. Sometimes linked to Magritte is the French Surrealist Pierre Roy and it is possible that one of this artist's paintings inspired Koch's "Leeuw in interieur". In 1926 Roy painted "The danger at the stairs", this shows a snake on a staircase similar to the lion in Koch's painting. The picture was published in an edition of Variétés in 1929 where Koch could have seen it.
Both paintings look like visions from a dream or memories mixed with fantasies. In Koch's painting the memory from long ago is a child's fantasy about wild animals in a house, the house depicted is that in which Koch lived at a later stage. This environment has been shown as concrete as possible by illusionistic means. The incidence of light, the double shadows on the walls and the reflections on the shiny floor of the room are carefully observed and reproduced; the lion has no reflection. It is a view from a different world that obeys other laws that those that rule our dimension. It is a view from a different world that obeys other laws than those that rule our dimension.
This painting was the last in which Koch showed realities in conjunction with an element of illusion this by introducing techniques such as a "Fremdkörper" in a well-known environment. Later he only used this technique in some of his satirical paintings. Afterwards in order to achieve a magical quality in his work he would only use details that would really be visible under normal circumstances. In such pictures the movement from image to reality is hardly noticeable. Often it is only the intrusive way the image is presented that gives the spectator the impression that he is confronted wtih a different dimension of reality from his own."(Blotkamp, op.cit., 1972, p. 67)
See colour illustration