(Meran 1869–1940)
Bathers / Die Badenden, 1922, signed and dated lower left: Leo Putz 22, on the reverse old label with title and date 1915–1922, oil on canvas, 85 x 95 cm, framed

Provenance:
Kurt Brass (1923–1999), Chief conductor of the symphony orchestra St. Gallen, Switzerland
by descent to his widow Martha Brass (1921–2004), Switzerland
thence by descent to the present owner – private collection, Austria

Literature:
Helmut Putz, Leo Putz. Werkverzeichnis, vol. II, 1994, cat. no. 529, ill.

Illustrated and registered in:
Helmut Putz, Leo Putz. Werkverzeichnis in zwei Bänden, vol II, Gauting 1994, cat. rais. no. 529, ill.

We are grateful to Dr. Bernd Dürr for confirming the authenticity of the painting based on a professional photograph.

Leo Putz, one of the most influential representatives of late Impressionism in Germany, spent the summer and autumn months of 1909-1914 with friends at Hartmannsberg Castle, romantically situated among the lovely surroundings of the castle pond near Lake Chiemsee. There, entirely in the spirit of plein air painting, he developed the large series of “Bathers” with the fascinating theme of light, water reflections and the female nude in various postures. Among his favourite models were the Haun sisters, whom he repeatedly depicted as nudes on the shore of the lake in natural poses.

As a photograph from 1914 proves, this medium served the painter as a model for the variants he worked out in the studio, which he continued to develop after 1920 (cf. Putz 1994, vol. 1, p. 569, ill. 26).
The present painting adheres exactly to the position of figures of the known photograph and to a recently resurfaced oil study. But unlike the painting executed in 1914 (cat. rais. no. 524), Putz inserts a barge with a third girl undressing in the upper corner. The sharp diagonal of the barge with its striking depth counteracts the flatness of the foreground and lends an element of tension to the harmony of the almost square frame.