Hitzacker an der Elbe. Wohl 1920/30s.
Oil on cardboard.
Signed lower right. Signed, titled "Hitzacker a.d. Elbe" and barely legible inscribed on verso. 48,8 x 69,2 cm (19,2 x 27,2 in).

PROVENANCE: Collection Ludwig Roselius, Bremen.
Private collection Hesse.

Paul Mechlen was born in Krefeld on the Rhine in 1888. At first he studied at the Krefeld School of Commercial Art with Jan Thorn Prikker and then changed to Hamburg to the class of Arthur Illies. Mechlen found inspiration for his paintings on journeys to Italy, France and Northern Africa. However, Northern German landscapes were among his preferred motifs. This work shows the Lower Saxon town of Hitzacker on the river Elbe. Mechlen uses complementary contrasts of warm red and cool green in order to create tension, thus he adds a powerful liveliness and lucidity to this work. [AKF/KH].