RUDOLF WACKER (Austrian, 1893-1939)Hof1928, oil on paperboardsigned and dated R.W. XII.28 lower left25 1/2 x 19 1/2 in., frame: 30 1/2 x 24 1/2 in. Provenance: By direct descent within the artist's family: from the artist to his wife's sister, Hildegard Moebius; by descent to her son; by descent to the current owners.Literature: Haller, Max. Rudolf Wacker, 1893–1939. Biografie mit dem Oeuvre-Katalog des malerischen Werkes. Lustenau 1971, cat no. 127.Other Notes: Rudolf Wacker was one of Austria’s most important representatives of the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) and the Phantastischer Realism (Magic Realism) movements. In 1914, he was drafted into the Tyrolean Imperial Rifles Regiment, captured a year later in Poland by the Russians, and imprisoned in Siberia for nearly five years. He returned to Berlin in 1920 where he became a founding member of the Vorarlberger Artists' Association, Der Kreis (The Circle). Lots 44 and 45 are typical of his celebrated work of the mid to late 1920s, which depicted houses and backyards in working–class neighborhoods.