(Pöchlarn 1886–1980 Villeneuve)
‘Mutter mit Kind’ (Trudl mit No-Maske), c. 1932/1934, monogrammed OK, dedication: Lieber Giovanni ein freundlicher Händedruck, mir tut der Gedanke so wohl, daß in Rom wer an mich denkt Dein Oskar, red chalk on paper, 52 x 69 cm, on the reverse by another hand: diese Studie Oskar Kokoschkas ‘Mutter und Kind’, ungefähr 1934, ist nach meiner Meinung ein Original ... (the rest and the signature illegible), (K)

This drawing will be included in the catalogue raisonné of drawings and watercolours by Dr. Alfred Weidinger.

Photo certificate:
by Prof. Dr. Heinz Spielmann, Hamburg, 27.7.2014:...

The background:
on his journey back from Tunisia, Kokoschka stopped off in Rome after 22 May 1930 (he stayed in the Hotel Flora); after a few days he travelled on from there to Anticoli in the Sabine Hills. It is not clear from the letters of this period whom he met in Rome, yet, based on the dedication on the drawing, he must have met a Germanspeaking Italian with the first name of Giovanni. In September, Kokoschka returned to Paris via Annecy. Due to the growing financial crisis, his financial situation increasingly deteriorated, so that he moved in with his mother and brother into the house that he had given to them, at first from September 1931 until March 1932, and then (with interruptions) from August 1932 until the end of September 1934.

The Trudl paintings
In Vienna, Kokoschka painted a view of the city commissioned by the city government; after that, he hardly had any income. At home, a naive, childlike girl named Gertrud Bandera (Trudl) cheered him up. He drew and painted her repeatedly from the spring of 1932 onwards (cf. the paintings in the catalogue raisonné of Hans M. Wingler, no. 281–283). To this group of paintings belongs the painting ‘Mutter und Kind’, closely related to the drawing, and also known by the titles ‘Im Garten’ and ‘Trudl mit No Maske’ (Cat. Zurich 1986, No. 79, colour plate). The Kunsthalle Emden possesses another version of the theme. Kokoschka informed Hans M. Wingler in 1955 that he had painted the image in 1934, as one of the last in Vienna before he travelled to Prague. He indicated that preparatory sketches for it were already created some time previously; Wingler cites as examples two red chalk drawings in the possession of the collector Victor Wallerstein. The question of whether one of these drawings is identical with the present sheet cannot be answered. It can nevertheless be assumed that Kokoschka made many drawings with this motif, and the present sheet belongs to this group. The style of the drawing and the dedication written by Kokoschka himself provide evidence of its authenticity; this is supported by the Roman provenance. The date of the creation of the work can be limited to a period of time from, at the earliest, early spring/early summer 1932 until September 1934 at the latest. The motif reveals that Kokoschka gladly played dressing-up, as with other children; in this case he put a No-mask on the young girl and placed her doll in her hand, yet drew her in such a fashion that one receives the impression of an image ‘drawn from life.’

Provenance:
Galleria del Secolo, Rome (end of the 1940s)
Private Collection, Italy