Beschreibung:

Artist: Gerhard Richter (b.1932) German Title: Schädel mit Kerze (Skull with Candle) Signature: signed in black ink lower right Medium: offset lithograph printed in colours, 1995, published by The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, on smooth wove paper, with margins Size: 41 x 61.60cm (16 x 24in) Provenance: Private Collection, London Dreweatts & Bloomsbury 2014 Private Collection, Dublin More info: Click to read more about this lot Gerhard Richter is among the most renowned artists in the world and is frequently mentioned in lists of candidates for the title of 'greatest living painter'. In October 2012, Richter's 'Abstraktes Bild' set an auction record price for a painting by a living artist at $34 million (£21 million). This was further exceeded in February 2015 when his painting Abstraktes Bild sold for $44.52 million (£30.4 million) in London. In 1982 and 1983, Richter made a series of paintings of Candles and Skulls that relate to a longstanding tradition of still life memento moripainting. Each composition is most commonly based on a photograph taken by Richter in his own studio. Influenced by old master vanitas painters such as Georges de La Tour and Francisco de Zurbarán the artist began to experiment with arrangements of candles and skulls placed in varying degrees of natural light, sitting atop otherwise barren tables. Richter has made only 27 of these still lifes with ‘Schädel mit Kerze’ (‘Skull with Candle’ of 1983) the painting depicted in the subject lithograph being one the most celebrated. In 1995, the artist marked the 50th anniversary of the allied bombings of his hometown Dresden during the Second World War. His solitary candle was reproduced on a monumental scale and placed overlooking the River Elbe as a symbol of rejuvenation.