“Landscape near Davos-Wolfgang” Philipp Bauknecht – the Forgotten Artist of Expressionism in Davos

The historical houses of Davos-Wolfgang stretch out idyllically before the blue lake, set within a mountain landscape of radiant yellow and green hues.

Philipp Bauknecht's (1884-1933) watercolour painting depicts the village the artist moved to in 1910 after contracting tuberculosis. Aged 26 at the time, the German artist had trained as a carpenter before attending the Königliche Akademie der bildenden Künste (State Academy of Fine Arts) in Stuttgart. Bauknecht, who opposed the First World War, established himself in the Alpine village, where he was able to avoid being conscripted into military service. He documented the Graubünden mountain hamlet, capturing its natural beauty while also portraying farmers and convalescing guests in oil paintings, woodcuts, and watercolours. However, despite producing a large number of large-format prints and monumental paintings with intense colours and powerful Expressionist depictions, Philipp Bauknecht remains far less well-known today than Max Pechstein, Emil Nolde, or Ernst Ludwig Kirchner.

Even though his works were exhibited during his lifetime, particularly between 1920 and 1930 in Germany, the painter and graphic artist – whose health deteriorated in the 1920s and who died during surgery in Davos in 1933 – faded into obscurity. During the National Socialist regime, his works were classified as “degenerate art” and subsequently confiscated, destroyed, or lost.

However, at that time, some of his works were not held in collections in Germany but were instead hidden and kept safe by his widow, Ada van Blommestein, in a small town in the Netherlands. It was not until 1960 that his works were rediscovered by the Dutch art dealer and gallerist Joop Smid, and they have since been presented to the public in exhibitions and publications.