Lot 207: Vanitas

Walter Sigmund Hampel (Austrain, 1868-1949)
Vanitas
signed and dated 'Sigmund W. Hampel MCMXXIII' (lower left); and signed, inscribed and dated 'SIGMUND WALTER HAMPEL MCMXXIII' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
27½ x 31½ in. (69.8 x 60 cm.)

with Whitford and Hughes, London, no. 3529.

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 17.5% on the buyer's premium.
The present lot has been inscribed by the artist with the following poem on the reverse:

Des schicksals finger schreibt und lauft von wort zu word,
Kein glaube hilft, kein spruch, kein zauberwort, er kehrt nicht um, streicht keine zeile aus, und keine träne löscht ein einziges wort.

(The finger of fate writes and runs from word to word,
No faith helps, no spell, no magic word, it does not revert,
it does not cancel out any line, and no tears quench a single word)