Charcoal and blue pen on transparent paper. Signed and dated in lower left. 121 x 114 cm. , the full sheet.
Preliminary drawing in same size for the painting "Die Fragen der Sphinx" (1984), today on loan at the Musée de Grenoble from an important corporate collection. [JS].
- Klapheck is renowned as the inventor and master of the "machine picture", which he sees as a mirror of human existence. - Exhibited together with the painting of the same title in the "Konrad Klapheck/Gustave Moreau" exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris in 2008. - While Klapheck's "super-representational" paintings fascinate with their maximum perfection, Klapheck's "preliminary drawings" are unique testimonies to the underlying, meticulous complex creative process. - Klapheck's drawings are the "witnesses of [his] struggle with their sweaty smell of desperate searching and groping" (K. Klapheck, 1982).

Konrad Klapheck/Gustave Moreau, Musée d`Orsay, Paris, June 3 - September 14, 2008

Art dealership Wolfgang Wittrock, Düsseldorf (with the label on the frame). Private collecton North Rhine-Westphalia (acquired from the above in 1991)

In good condition. With pressure marks and rubbed spots from the making, as well as with isolated creases in the margins, with a somewhat more distinct diagonal crease in lower right. Lower left edge with a tiny tear, with mounting tape on the reverse of the upper corners, showing through recto. Minimally irregularly browned.