Lot 615

, which may be a misspelling for “Siwandu”, a well-known village and camp in Tansania.
The painting was formerly attributed to Amrita Sher-Gil, based on consignor’s informations.
Recent research, however, compared the above work with Ruckteschells picture of 1914 in the Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin, (Inv.No.1990/38), and thus quite clearly revealed Ruckteschell’s authorship.

Walter von Ruckteschell and his wife reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in 1914, accompanied by the Swiss painter Carl von Salis (1886-1941), whose artistic cooperation may not be entirely excluded here.
In a letter to his parents, Carl von Salis mentioned 12 views he painted of Mount Kilimanjaro, 4 of which were sized 80x120cm.
They all stayed in Moshi/Tansania and have never officially resurfaced, quite like most of Ruckteschell’s pictures of this region.

Walter von Ruckteschell contributed to Alain Locke’s (African-American philosopher) publications during the Harlem Renaissance, with a portrait drawing of Hassan Bilal (1921) in the Magazine “Graphic Survey” in 1925.
Locke labelled it as an ideal representation of Young Africa.

In 1933, Ruckteschell was duly classified as a “degenerate artist” by the “Reichskulturkammer”.
Later, in 1939, he was nevertheless allowed to exhibit at the “Grosse Deutsche Kunstausstellung”.
Recently, some accusations against the artist have been voiced, concerning possible colonialism.
Alain Locke did not see it this way at the time.