János Mattis-Teutsch (1884 - 1960)

László Jurecskó and Zsolt Kishonthy (MissionArt Gallery) have kindly confirmed the authenticity of this work.

Mattis-Teutsch was born in the Transylvanian city of Brassó (Brasov), then part of the Kingdom of Hungary within Austria-Hungary, now part of Romania. Between 1901 and 1903 he studied sculpture at the National Hungarian Royal School for Applied Arts in Budapest, and then left for Munich, where he attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, and Paris. In the years between 1905 and 1907, Mattis-Teutsch earned his living as a frame-carver in Paris, amidst many influences including Gauguin and Van Gogh, the Nabis, but also Matisse and the Fauves.

He returned from Paris in 1908, and was particularly influenced by the groups Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, with the embrace of colour and naturalist themes and landscapes reflected in his paintings of the time. The first retrospective of Mattis-Teutsch was held at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and The Hungarian National Gallery in Budapest in 2007, firmly positioning Mattis-Teutsch as a key figure of the Der Blaue Reiter movement.