.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Impression of Ticino, 1939
Watercolour over pen and ink drawing
7,8 × 8,6 cm
With letter in typescript, handwritten thanks and signature, dated 7 Feb. 1939
dated 7 Feb. 1939
Provenance:
Collection Dr W. Stämpfli, Bern
Koch Gallery, Hanover
Private collection, Hanover (since 2003)
Koch Gallery, Hanover
Private collection, Hanover (since 2003)
"I squeeze your hand, dear friend Stämpfli - angelo, sceso dal cielo!" (Hermann Hesse, 7 February 1939)
In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, in the midst of a severe psychological crisis caused by family worries and political hostility from Germany, Hermann Hesse began to draw and paint on the advice of the Lucerne doctor and psychoanalyst Dr Josef Bernhard Lang. After moving from Bern to Montagnola (Ticino) in 1919, watercolours became his preferred artistic technique and the Ticino landscape his subject. Hesse began to add small-format watercolours to his letters to friends, whether handwritten or typed. These so-called painting letters include the letter addressed to the Bernese publisher Dr Wilhelm Stämpfli (1875-1958) on 7 February 1939, which shows a very finely executed mountain landscape with buildings characteristic of Ticino.
Hesse had been on friendly terms with Stämpfli since his time in Bern (1912-1919) and remained in contact with him even after his move to Monatgnola. Stämpfli supported the writer on various occasions, for example with private prints, including the volume "Zehn Gedichte" (Bern: Stämpfli & Cie), which is mentioned in this letter. The years of the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany weighed heavily on the writer. From 1939 onwards, his writings were considered undesirable in Germany and were no longer published. In this respect, the publisher's willingness to print the poems Hesse had written since 1937 was "a great joy - a ray of hope in the midst of these days, which bring so much ugliness" (Hermann Hesse, 7 February 1939).
Anette Brunner
In 1916, in the middle of the First World War, in the midst of a severe psychological crisis caused by family worries and political hostility from Germany, Hermann Hesse began to draw and paint on the advice of the Lucerne doctor and psychoanalyst Dr Josef Bernhard Lang. After moving from Bern to Montagnola (Ticino) in 1919, watercolours became his preferred artistic technique and the Ticino landscape his subject. Hesse began to add small-format watercolours to his letters to friends, whether handwritten or typed. These so-called painting letters include the letter addressed to the Bernese publisher Dr Wilhelm Stämpfli (1875-1958) on 7 February 1939, which shows a very finely executed mountain landscape with buildings characteristic of Ticino.
Hesse had been on friendly terms with Stämpfli since his time in Bern (1912-1919) and remained in contact with him even after his move to Monatgnola. Stämpfli supported the writer on various occasions, for example with private prints, including the volume "Zehn Gedichte" (Bern: Stämpfli & Cie), which is mentioned in this letter. The years of the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany weighed heavily on the writer. From 1939 onwards, his writings were considered undesirable in Germany and were no longer published. In this respect, the publisher's willingness to print the poems Hesse had written since 1937 was "a great joy - a ray of hope in the midst of these days, which bring so much ugliness" (Hermann Hesse, 7 February 1939).
Anette Brunner