Auction House

Auction: Evening Sale - Modern Art

27. November 2023, 7:00 pm

Object overview
Object

0008

Sebastian Isepp*

(Nötsch im Gailtal 1884 - 1954 London)

„Blick ins Gailtal“
1910-13
oil on canvas; framed
105 x 112 cm
signed on the lower right: Sebastian Isepp

Provenance

Emil Ludwig (1881-1948), Switzerland;
since then private property, Switzerland

The work has been included in the digital catalogue raisonné by Mag. Sigrid Diewald, Museum of the Nötscher Kreis.

Estimate: € 35.000 - 70.000
Result: € 66.000 (incl. fees)
Auction is closed.

Sebastian Isepp’s work as a painter is closely linked to his native Nötsch. The village, which is situated in the south of Carinthia near the border to Slovenia and Italy, and the striking shapes of the landscape surrounding it, combined with the specific light of this region, always offered the artist a rich repertoire of motifs. This picture, too, was painted in the immediate vicinity of his birthplace and, from a slightly elevated position, offers the viewer a sweeping view of the Gail valley to the west. With dynamic, broad brushstrokes and supreme confidence, Isepp captured the lush meadows of this region in rich shades of green, interspersed with individual areas of nuanced pinks and purples. From the lower left, a sparse, summarily rendered group of trees leads diagonally into the depths, with the road to Emmersdorf running parallel to it like a bright, slightly curved ribbon. The background is dominated by the impressive panorama of the Carnic and Gailtal Alps, showing the distinctive silhouette of the Oisternig on the far left, followed by the peak of the Poludnig and, in the distance, the Hochwipfel and the Plenge.
To the right, the mountain peaks of the Graslitzen, the Vellacher Egel, the Spitzegel and the Reisskofel march into the centre of the picture, where the evening sun bathes the sky in an intense yellowish hue, causing the remote mountain ranges to glow in delicate gradations of violet. It is the last, special, evocative light of a fading summer’s day in the Gailtal valley that gives the work its own unique atmosphere. This effect is further emphasised by Isepp's expressive style of composition, which is powerfully expressed in a generous application of paint with vigorous brushstrokes, the reduction of the individual motifs to their basic outward forms and an avoidance of any detailed modelling of the objects in the picture.

The provenance of the work, which was in the possession of the writer and journalist Emil Ludwig, is also interesting and reveals Isepp's numerous connections with important figures from the visual arts, music and literature, which he primarily established in the progressive intellectual circles of early 20th-century Vienna. These connections included, for example, his acquaintanceships and amicable relationships with Rainer Maria Rilke, Egon Wellesz, Carl Zuckmayer, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Oskar Kokoschka and Adolf Loos.
(Sigrid Diewald)