S-080 Gebirgsjäger (Mountain Troop)
Obergefreiter’s Portrait – Period Painting
This painting is quite large at about 29.5” vertical by 23.5”
horizontal, with the soldier in uniform shown from mid-chest level upwards, and
including the upper sleeves on both arms. He’s also wearing a two-button style
Bergmütze. The artist did an excellent job of portraying the field grey uniform
color, and the face looks very natural and quite serious! – I expect it was
also an excellent likeness of the individual it portrays. The fellow’s Bergmütze
shows a two-piece, BeVo insignia set – white thread on dark blue/green. Barely
visible on the cap’s left side is the bottom of an Edelweiss insignia.
The tunic is a Model 1936 pattern with blue/green collar, pleated pockets with
scalloped flaps – and BeVo (machine woven) grey collar tabs with dark green
piping – so the artist knew his details. He even painted an Iron Cross 2nd
Class ribbon (dating the tunic to 1939 or after) and also gave the tunic pointed
(i.e. early) shoulder boards, piped in green for Gebirgsjäger branch and
complete with “chain stitched” Unit ciphers. Perhaps the soldier was still
wearing his original pointed boards even this late (by now the changeover to
round-topped boards was likely pretty widespread). We’ll never know…
The Gebirgsjäger sleeve patch is quite clear, and the Obergefreiter chevrons
and green Signals Blitz (green for Gebirgsjäger) are also very nicely rendered.
The canvas is still fairly taught, and the paint being relatively thin (thin
pigment mix), there is no sign of any cracking. The artist put in the lower left
“our Fritz”, and what is probably his own name in the right corner. Great
painting – would look spectacular framed! Rare offering!
$795.00
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Item S-080
