Werner Peiner PEINER, WERNER Düsseldorf 1897 -... Lot 1262

Werner Peiner PEINER, WERNER Düsseldorf 1897 - 1981 Title: The Apocalypse. Cycle of 25 Works. Technique: Each: Gouache on card. Measurement: 64,5 x 50cm. Notation: Signed and dated bottom right/left: W. Peiner 48/49. Frame/Pedestal: Framed. Provenance: Private ownership, Germany. 1 John beholds the seven candlesticks. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 2 John before God. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 3 The 24 elders before the throne. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 4 The first Apocalyptic Horseman. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 5 The second Apocalyptic Rider. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 6 The third Apocalyptic Rider. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 7 The fourth apocalyptic rider. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 8 The Seven Angels with the Seven Trumpets. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 9 Horsemen above the burning city. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 10 The army on horseback. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 11 Dragon in front of red clouds. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 12 The four avenging angels. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 13 Horsemen over the battlefield. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 14 The locusts of Abbadon. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner. 15 Angel with the little book. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 16 The woman clothed with the sun and the seven-headed dragon. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 17 Crescent Moon Madonna above the dragon. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. 18 The Beast from the Sea and the Beast from the Earth. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 19 The winepress of the wrath of God. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 49. 20 Angels pouring out golden bowls of the wrath of God. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 49. 21 The Whore of Babylon on the Scarlet Beast. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 22 The Fall of Babylon. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 49. 23 The rider on the white horse triumphs over the animal. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 24 The fight of Michael with the dragon. Signed and dated lower left: W. Peiner 48. 25 The New Jerusalem. Signed and dated lower right: W. Peiner 48. Twenty-five gouaches with apocalyptic themes, each individually manageable in size, in sum next to each other they appear monumental. Today one can see in them an inkling of later fantastic painting, as well as recourse to old models. Werner Peiner's appointment in 1933 to the Düsseldorf Art Academy as professor of monumental painting can be seen in the extensive cycle, as can his origins in the New Objectivity style of the 1920s, the painter's still apolitical years. Through his connections to important entrepreneurs, Peiner was able to establish very good contacts with Göring and Hitler during the years of National Socialism, which earned him not only lucrative commissions but also his own academy in Kronenburg and, in 1944, inclusion in the list of the "Gottbegnadeten". All artists and cultural workers who were indispensable in the eyes of the rulers and on Hitler's orders were listed on this list and thus spared from front-line service. After 1945, Peiner was interned for several months. Afterwards, in 1948, he acquired the dilapidated castle Haus Vorst in the Rhineland, where he lived and worked until his death in 1984. The role of Peiner and other contemporary artist colleagues, especially in the war and post-war period, is currently being examined in the exhibition "Die Liste der 'Gottbegnadeten'. Artists of National Socialism in the Federal Republic" at the German Historical Museum in Berlin. At the end of the 1940s, he still produced two larger painting cycles, which were shown together in 1950 as part of the Katholkientag in Altötting: in addition to the Apocalypse shown here, there is also the 25-part series of "Demons of the Hour". In both works, Peiner takes as his theme, in dark and martial forms, the atrocities of war and the general insecurity that followed it. Here, Peiner reaches far back into the tradition of old German art and establishes a connection with Albrecht Dürer's 15 woodcuts on Revelation through the theme alone. These were created in 1498 in a time of great political and religious upheaval, which brought forth end-time expectations just as much as the immediate post-war period in Germany, which was marked by destruction. Estimated shipping costs for this lot: Arrangement after the auction.