Terrace by the lake, oil on canvas, 70 cm x 85 cm, signed, 59 dated, slight scratches on the surface, provenance: Galerie Boisserée (verso gallery label).
''The splendour of colour is incomparable when the eastern sky reflects the fireworks of the western.'' - Thomas Mann about Nidden. Interrupted by the First World War, in which Ernst Mollenhauer himself had to serve as a soldier, the artist studied at the Königsberg Art Academy. Born in Tapiau in East Prussia, Mollenhauer was encouraged by the world-famous painter Lovis Corinth, also from Tapiau and a friend of his father. During his early creative years, Mollenhauer participated in the founding of an artists' association. During these years, he not only met other great fellow artists such as Max Pechstein and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, but also his wife. She was the daughter of Hermann Blode, in whose inn numerous artists found a place to stay and the artists' colony of Nidden came into being. It was supposed to be a place for artistic exchange, which also produced friendships among colleagues. Under the orders of the German Reich, however, his work was also declared ''degenerate'' and the artist was banned from painting and exhibiting. The majority of his artistic work was not to survive the war. As a result, exhibitions mainly feature works by the artist that were created after the Second World War. After Mollenhauer's release from captivity in Denmark and a British camp in Schleswig-Holstein, he built up a new existence in Kaarst near Düsseldorf in 1946. He moved into a studio in the Künstlerhaus in Düsseldorf, later a second one on Sylt.
