Sotheby’s is offering one of German artist Gerhard Richter’s finest landscape paintings during its London Evening sale of Contemporary Art. Estimated at £8-12 million, Richter’s “Eisberg” 1982 will be offered at auction for the first time, having remained in the same Private European collection since 1983.“Eisberg” was painted soon after the artist’s divorce from his first wife Ema in 1981. According to Sotheby’s, the frozen landscape with its balance of artic, icy hues is widely regarded as a metaphor for Richter’s state of mind at the time.Taking inspiration from German artist Caspar David Friedrich’s “The Sea of Ice,” Richter’s “Eisberg” is based on photographs taken by the artist during an Arctic expedition to photograph Greenland in 1972 at which time he was going through a bad patch in his marriage.“The project was…an excuse for getting away... Trouble in my marriage was reaching a climax. Going into the ice could be interpreted as longing for a place where one feels safe – just so long as there is no life, only ice,” Richter explained.Alex Branczik, Head of Contemporary Art, Sotheby’s Europe, said that in the short time that he has been lucky enough to live with this painting, he has been fascinated to see its colours change every day from glowing and warm to icy cold. “It’s a painting that never stands still,” he said. “For an artist who so consistently sought to objectively portray everyday nature as filtered through photography, the iceberg paintings hold a special place among Richter’s landscapes, coming closest to the transcendental sublime of Caspar David Friedrich and of 19th century German Romanticism.”“Eisberg” is the largest of three Iceberg paintings made by Richter, making it a significant rarity even though Richter had a particular interest in the landscape and has frequently turned to the landscape motif as a source of inspiration throughout his career.“I felt like painting something beautiful,” Richter stated when asked why he chose to depict the landscape. “If the abstract paintings show my reality, then the landscapes and still-lifes show my yearning,” he once said.
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