Feb 20 at 10:30 AM - Sale 2695 -

Sale 2695 - Lot 211

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

WALTER "WALTHER" VON WENZ ZU NIEDERLAHNSTEIN (1898-1963)

IEDEREEN LEEST "FAVORIET." Circa 1935.


43½x31¼ inches, 110½x78¾ cm. Kotting, Amsterdam.
Condition A-: minor repaired tears at edges and in image; slight foxing in image; unobtrusive residual staining from adhesive at edges.

Walter Karl Alexander Heinrich von Wenz zu Niederlahnstein, or just "Walter," as he usually signed his name, was noble-born (a Baron) in Germany. Coming from a military family, he joined the German army at 16, but quickly decided that he was an anti-militarist and communist. He studied at the Academy of Art in Munich, was imprisoned for his complicity in a revolution, then escaped and fled to the Netherlands. There, he began his career making political posters, satirical drawings, and was asked to be head of the Artistic Propaganda department at Philips, taking over for Louis Kalff. After many years of denouncing his German roots in the face of World War II, he finally became naturalized as a Dutch citizen in 1956. (Philipsreclamekunst.nl).