Property from the Estate of Louis Christian Hess LOUIS CHRISTIAN HESS (AUSTRIAN 1895-1944) Still life with lemons signed C.Hess (upper left) oil on board 42 x 33.2 cm (16 1/2 x 13 1/4 in) EXHIBITED: Messina, Istituto Verona Trento, Die erste Retrospektive Ausstellung des Malers Louis Christian Hess, 1956 Rome, Goethe Institut Roma in collaboration with Galleria Art Message, Retrospettiva Christian Hess - Oli, acquerelli, disegni dal 1922 al 1938, 1983 Bruneck, Stadtsmuseum, Christian Hess, Back to the Origins a century later, 2011 Painted in 1925 in Messina, the year Hess arrived in Sicily to visit his sister Emma. There he experienced an artistic epiphany, revelling in the possibilities of colour and light that the sun-drenched Mediterranean island offered. Hess returned to Sicily frequently thereafter. In 1927 he executed a series of bold colourful Sicily-inspired works for exhibition in Germany, and in 1933 he moved there with his wife, the actress Cecilia Faesy, a move that was sadly short-lived: Faesy left him to live in Switzerland three years later. See introduction to lot 321.