CHAMPION, THEO
1887 Düsseldorf–1952 Zell/Mosel

Title: Niederrheinisches Landschaftsbild (Spaziergänger).
Date: 1936.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Measurement: 160 x 270 cm.
Notation: Signed and dated lower right: Champion 1936.
Frame: Framed.



Provenance:
- - Private collection North Rhine-Westphalia



- Idyllic scenes rendered in a unique, evocative visual style

- A skillful blend of naivety and masterful painting

- A rare example of the champions of Romantic art rendered in a monumental format



Theo Champion’s painting is characterised by poetic, evocative landscapes that appear less realistic and more atmospheric. This is evident in the two Lower Rhineland works from 1936. In the painting ‘Spaziergänger’ (Walkers), a vast, tranquil landscape unfolds, featuring scattered trees and small figures that emphasise the expanse. “Horses in the Meadow” (Lot 132) takes up this motif, but supplements it with a striking tree form in the foreground, animals in the distance and a group of people resting. Both paintings combine observation of nature with deliberate composition to create an idealised, poetic landscape.

Thanks to his financial independence, Champion is able to work freely and is valued as an independent painter-poet. After the war, he co-founded the artist groups “Das Junge Rheinland” and “Rheinische Sezession”. In 1932, he founded the group “Die Sieben” (The Seven) with artists such as Alexander Kanoldt, Franz Lenk, Franz Radziwill and Georg Schrimpf, inspired by Caspar David Friedrich in their search for a “New Romanticism”. In none of the painters, however, is a painterly reference to Friedrich as evident as in Champion. Theo Champion is described by Carl Vossen as a “Rhenish painter-poet”. His work largely defies art-historical classification, as stylistically he stands “outside of time”. His painting unites opposites: it appears at once modern and rooted in tradition, artful and naïve, realistic and poetically dreamlike.



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