Walter Schnackenberg
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Famed poster and stage scenery artist Walter Schnackenberg shifts gear and paints a nightmarish vision from his imagination. In the present work, we witness scary monsters emerge from the mountains, as a horrified climber looks on. The beastly creatures were intended to symbolize the artist's deep take on social and psychological issues in Germany at the time. Schnackenberg may have been inspired by Goya's "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters". In that iconic work, Goya also reflects on his view of Spanish society.
Schnackenberg's work may have been done on assignment for a magazine story, but it was most likely for the artist's own creative output. It is titled "In the Mountain Gorge" and is exquisitely conceptualized and rendered with masterful expressiveness.
Signed and dated 'Schnackenberg 49' (lower right)
watercolor, pen and ink on paper
17 1/8 x 13 1/4 in (43.5 x 33.7 cm)
Executed in 1949
Framed under glass to 24.5 x 20.5
Provenance
Day & Faber, London
Jason Jacques, New York
Bonhams