This is a fine vintage woodcut by Oscar Droege. It shows an autumn landscape with a group of silvery birch trees. There is a wood in the distance with a little thatched cottage and barn. I think that the grey winding shapes in the foreground shows an icy river that than a pass. Droege certainly loved to paint ghostly forms of birch trees. I love his use of the burnt oranges and ochres in the grasses in the foreground - which contrast beautifully with the rich blues and purples in the sky as the sun finishes setting and starts to turn to twilight.
It is signed in pencil to the lower right: Oscar Droege.
Image size: 23.5 x 39.5. The mount size is 41 x 56.5 cm.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY: Paul (Oskar) Droege was a German printmaker and painter. He was born in Hamburg in 1898. Droege served as a soldier in the German army in WWI and served in France and Russia. After the war he studied at the Darmstadt Artist’s Colony and the Dusseldorf Academy. In the early 1920s he started to produced colour woodcuts. With his friend, the artist Wener Lange, he travelled by bicycle through Germany, France and Scandinavia looking for subject matter.
Droege was called up again to serve in the German army in WWII. At the end of the War he was released from Russian captivity. In the 1950s he returned to his travels moving from Switzerland to Paris. In the 1960s he returned to painting with watercolour and moved back to Hamburg – where he died in 1983.
In the 1920s he started to make these stylish woodcuts of northern German landscapes. He preferred to show more misty scenes at twilight - and with more cropped, almost "snapshot" images. This woodcut featuring a seascape and frozen wilderness is more unusual in his oeuvre and these do not come on the market that often.
This fine colour woodcut by Droege is in good condition. It is being sold with a new window mount ready for you to hang straight onto your wall. There is a little time-tone where the window mount has been - I have photographed this for you.. it is not obvious under the mount.
I have taken lots of images for your inspection. It has not been laid down or glued onto backing card in the past - the sheet is loose.
UK Postage Only. It will be sent to you with Parcelforce24 postage. It is a large work and the frame is a substantial one. This will cost £14.95 and applied to your order at the checkout. Sadly I cannot sent to EU countries - but I could possibly send outside of the UK. Please enquire.