31. Max Oppenheimer
(1885-1954)
New York at Night

(click on image to print)
Oppenheimer: New York at Night

New York at Night

Lithograph, 1951, 264 x 190 mm., Pabst L-28. Very fine impression in black and brownish grey with touches of pale yellow hand coloring by the artist, on white wove paper with large margins, signed and numbered in pencil. This was the artist’s last print. Oppenheimer, who from 1911 used the name MOPP, was born in Vienna, studied there and in Prague and for some time worked in the circle of Schiele and Kokoschka. He was exceptionally well known in German-speaking Europe for both his paintings and his prints, specializing somewhat in musical subjects, portraits and portraits of musical subjects – including those of Busoni, Szigeti, the Rose Quartet and Gustav Mahler conducting the Vienna Philharmonic with virtually every member of the orchestra identifiably delineated. He left Austria just before the Anschluss (his work had been declared “degenerate” by the Nazis and his paintings removed from German museums) and settled in New York City. Although this print is numbered in pencil from an edition of 250, that is almost certainly an optimistic fiction. Pabst notes an edition of 35 and the print is almost never seen on the market.