Property from the Estate of Louis Christian Hess LOUIS CHRISTIAN HESS (AUSTRIAN 1895-1944) Self-portrait oil on canvas 99.7 x 58.5 cm (31 3/8 x 23 in) EXHIBITED: Rome, Goethe Institut, Retrospettiva Christian Hess - Oli, acquerelli, disegni dal 1922 al 1938, 1983 Bolzano, Museo Civico, Christian Hess, 2008-2009, no. 1, illustrated in the catalogue Painted in Munich in 1924, this is one of a small number of self-portraits Hess completed between 1920 and 1937. Although not formally associated with Neue Sachlichkeit, the present work shares similarities with Christian Schad’s objective Neue Sachlichkeit style of the mid-1920s. Like Schad’s portraits, Hess paints himself with a stark realism, looking out at the viewer with a quizzical eye. See introduction to lot 321.