Lot 49: POSTER: RICHARD KNECHT (1887- ?) HEXEN-SABBAT.

RICHARD KNECHT (1887- ?) HEXEN-SABBAT.
45 3/4x30 7/8 inches. DBC Wolf und Sohn, Munich.
Condition A-: tape stains; pen and minor repaired tears in margins.
Knecht studied at the Munich Academy and his paintings were first shown at the Secession exhibition in 1914. The Hexen-Sabbat was a yearly ball held by Munich artists and bohemians. The event took its pagan name from the old German tale of the "Hexentanz auf dem Brocken," in which on every Sabbath witches would dance around the devil who lived at the summit of a mountain. For this image Knecht playfully illustrates a ring of costumed revelers atop a peak, dancing around an apparition of the devil. Green wisps of sulfur and brimstone are rising, like the stamen from some hedonistic flower. DFP III 1836.