Hundertwasser's comment on the work

At the beginning of my career I was still under Klee's influence. I had just returned from Africa. At the time the blue of African houses interested me very much. I put that in the hat. At the time I was painting very much after nature. The painting is a homage to Africa and Europe. There are Gothic windows - and just the same the colours are oriental. In the title the German word Schnurrbart (moustache) is intentionally spelled with only one "r": Schnurbart. (from: Hundertwasser, Buchheim Verlag, Feldafing, 1964, p. 42)One can't imagine it today, but this painting unleashed the first "Hundertwasser scandal", with the press feeding the flames, as could be expected, because the title said Schnurbart instead of Schnurrbart, because the painting was framed with old Venetian-blind slats full of "bedbug holes", because of its naive mannerism. It seemed incredible that somebody who had attended the Academy intentionally painted like a child. That was during my first exhibition at the Vienna Art Club in 1952. I wanted somehow to express my commitment to being a European and to the tradition of our culture. I also began to make a point of writing with pen and ink in the old German script.Paintings often have sad stories to tell. Especially this one. I sold it to Peggy Guggenheim for 100 dollars, assuming it would become a part of the Guggenheim Collection in Venice. Years later, when I wanted to exhibit the painting, Peggy told me she had given it to her daughter Peggeen because her grandchild (while still a baby) loved it so much that he played with the watercolour and tore it to pieces. I fetched the scraps of paper, had the painting restored and framed at my expense and gave it back to Peggy, again in the hope that it would be put in her collection. But a few years later Peggeen sold the "European" to the collector Aberbach in New York for 7,000 dollars. Later she committed suicide in Paris. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, pp. 222-223)