Will Sohl - 1925 - expressionist. Watercolor on paper - portrait - signed - Sold

• Original watercolor painted on paper in 1925. At the bottom by the German artist Will Sohl (1906 - 1969) the watercolor is in good condition and is a bit yellow (from the color) Sheet size 46x32 cm (HXW) including the wooden frame the dimensions are 51 x 37 cm.

Born in Ludwigshafen, Sohl grew up in Mannheim. When he left the Lessing-Realgymnasium in 1924, he wanted to become an artist. However, as his father insisted that he study architecture after completing an apprenticeship as a bricklayer, Sohl went to the Düsseldorf Art Academy and began studying architecture. Shortly afterwards, however, he switched to studying painting. He also studied art history and archaeology in Cologne, Zurich and Berlin. In 1928 he became a master student of Heinrich Nauen (1880–1940), the most important representative of "Rhenish Expressionism". In the same year, Sohl also had his first exhibition at the Mannheim Art Association.

After his studies he travelled to Holland, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia and the Baltic States. In between he worked for two years as a set designer at the Schauspielhaus Zurich and also as a guest set designer at the Nationaltheater Mannheim.
He married Ruth von Davans in 1930 and they had five children. During the first years of their marriage, she accompanied him on his travels. Every Christmas, Sohl thanked her with an "artist's book" that he lovingly dedicated to her. Each of these books, some of which are large-format and lavishly designed, with drawings, watercolors or graphics and often magnificently painted book covers, is a small painting exhibition in itself. Sometimes they show the family ("Around the House", n.d.), the memory of a visit to a fair ("Fairground Memories", 1941) or contain beautiful, colorful watercolors from his trip to the Lofoten Islands in 1968.
In 1935, Sohl visited Sylt for the first time and was delighted by the landscape and the sea. "I owe all my work to this island; it was as if it had been made for me" (May 1939). This is where he created the watercolors that are still famous for him today: large-scale compositions with often strongly contrasting colors. In a letter from 1937, he wrote about working on Sylt: "Today was a hard day, squalls of snow swept every half hour. I sat in Munkmarsch behind the wall and painted as best I could and admired the beautiful colored clouds that raced black over the brilliant blue, the horizon pale yellow, the water a peculiar green, like over-cultivated flowers, to black."
In 1936 he moved with his family to Heidelberg-Ziegelhausen, where he lived until his death. A good friend and fellow artist, Joachim Lutz (1906–1954), was already living there. The domicile of the artist community at the foot of Stiftweg was, especially after the war, a creative and intellectual center with the artist community "Free Group", which also included artists of other genres. Sohl was also one of the founding members of the Palatinate Secession in 1946.
In 1950, an intensive collaboration with the architect Otto Bartning (1883–1959) began. Will Sohl decorated his churches with murals made of natural stone mosaics and stained glass windows. He also regularly created stage sets for plays.
The artist processed his travel impressions in many of his works. As a painter, he was committed to expressionism. And he continued the legacy of expressionism after 1945. The fact that he became known beyond the region was largely thanks to the directors of the Mannheim Kunsthalle. Firstly, it was Gustav Friedrich Hartlaub, who gave a decisive impetus to Sohl's fame with exhibitions in 1932 and 1933. Secondly, the director Walter Passarge presented him in two exhibitions in 1947 and 1949 and then made him known in the relevant collector circles. Another important impetus for his fame was the former director of the Mannheim Kunsthalle, Fritz Wichert. Wichert got to know Sohl and his work during his first stays on Sylt and supported him throughout his life with positive reviews and recommendations.