Carl Hofer: Portrait of a Lady (Madame Bailhache)
1926, oil on canvas, 100,5 x 80,5 cm, Inv. Nr. 36, acquired in 1953
Carl Hofer, born 1878 in Karlsruhe, died 1955 in Berlin
The Russian dancer portrayed by Carl Hofer appears before the viewer, cool and distanced, with reserved gestures, without emotion. The picture seems to belong to the dead world of the moon, rather than the light and plastic day.
It is only logical that Hofer saw what is barren, impoverished in our era. As his pictures reflect this, they often create an impression of being frozen. The portrait "Madame Bailhache", which was acquired by the National Gallery in Berlin in 1929, was confiscated in 1937 – a total of 313 works by Hofer were confiscated, he himself was prohibited from working in his profession and subjected to repression, defamed by those in power in the Third Reich as a decadent artist of decayed art. The painting was sold at the Fischer auction in Lucerne in 1939 for 20 Swiss francs.
It was acquired by Wolfgang Gurlitt shortly thereafter and thus came into the possession of the New Gallery of the City of Linz as part of the original holdings of the Gurlitt Collection acquired by the city of Linz in 1953.
Angelika Gillmayr
