Horst Janssen, Signed Portrait, Pastel, 1989, Claude Bernard Gallery, New York

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Horst Janssen

Hamburg 1929 - 1995

Fritz Gutsche, leaning back, 1989

Pastel drawing over pencil on strong Japanese paper

hand … Read more Horst Janssen

Hamburg 1929 - 1995

Fritz Gutsche, leaning back, 1989

Pastel drawing over pencil on strong Japanese paper

hand signed, dated and titled in pencil

sheet size: 50 x 34,5 cm

frame: 75,5 x 59 cm

Original handmade model frame, museum glass

Provenance and literature: Claude Bernard Gallery New York, 1990 (with illustration)

Original condition (Janssen made this drawing on an artificially aged Japanese paper, see catalog)


Authenticity is guaranteed in writing.



The German draftsman and graphic artist Horst Janssen was born on 14.11.1929 in Hamburg as an illegitimate child. He spends his childhood in Oldenburg, as his grandfather adopts him. After his grandfather's death in 1939 and the death of his mother in 1941, Janssen was sent to the Nationalpolitische Erziehungsanstalt (Napola) in Haselhünne in Emsland the following year.
In 1945 Horst Janssen went to Hamburg, where he studied at the Landeskunstschule under Alfred Mahlau from 1946 to 1951. Through the mediation of his teacher, Janssen is able to work for the colored paper manufacturer Guido Dessauer in Aschaffenburg from 1952 to 1956. In addition to portraits in oil, he created ceramic objects, but above all Horst Janssen learned this graphic technique in the factory's lithography workshop. In 1957/58 he produced large-format color woodcuts in a partly expressionist, partly surreal whimsical style. These works bring the first artistic success and a secure income for Janssen, who by now has a wife and children.
In 1957 Horst Janssen learned the technique of etching from Paul Wunderlich, which he soon mastered with virtuosity and became his preferred graphic technique. The etchings show a detail-obsessed accuracy and abysmal, often emphatically erotic fantasy. from 1963 on, Horst Janssen also increasingly used the direct medium of drawing; here he was able to express his pictorial ideas most subtly and forcefully. In addition, the artist reflected himself again and again over the years in numerous self-portraits.
Horst Janssen's graphic oeuvre comprises about 4,000 sheets and 47 series of etchings.
Horst Janssen died in Hamburg in 1995. In 1997, the Janssen Cabinet is established in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, where the graphic sheets from the collection of Janssen's printer Hartmut Frielingshaus are shown. In 2000, the Horst Janssen Museum opens in Oldenburg. This piece has an attribution mark,
I am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
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