Hundertwasser lived from 1949 on as a guest of the family Dumage in St. Mandé. On their property, in the former hunting-castle of the countess Castiglione, a lover of Napoleon III, the mural was painted on a brick wall in the second floor. In 1954 the painting was viewed by Dorival Dominguez and Marie Laure de Noailles. The castle was pulled down in 1964. The painting was then dismantled together with its brick wall, sawed up into 13 irregular pieces by Riccardo Licata and stored in Basel. In freight containers it was shipped to Long Island, where it was joined together again by Licata in the reformed Synagogue, an old Romanesque castle. In 2007 the painting was dismantled again with its brick wall in one piece and removed from the synagogue. Since then it is in private possession. The mural is severely damaged and needs restoration by a competent restorer with specialist knowledge of the restoration of Hundertwasser works.
mehr weniger- W. Schmied, Hundertwasser, Salzburg, 1974, pl. 7 (c), p. 309 (c)
- P. Restany, Hundertwasser, New York, 1978, p. 41 (c)
- H. Rand, Hundertwasser - Der Maler, Munich, 1986, pl. 17 (c), p. 164
- H. Rand, Hundertwasser, Cologne, 1991, p. 24 (c) and ed. 1993, p. 20 (c)
- P. Restany, Hundertwasser - Der Maler-König mit den fünf Häuten, Cologne, 1998, p. 62 (c) and ed. 2018, p. 70 (c)
- W. Schmied, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2000, Vol. I, pp. 159/160 (and c), 162
- A. C. Fürst, Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne, 2002, Vol. II, pp. 191-193 (and c)
- F. Hundertwasser / P. Restany, Hundertwasser, New York, 2008, p. 11 (c)
- G. Illetschko, Planet Hundertwasser, Munich, 2012, p. 24 (c)
- Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover, 1964, p. 104
- C. Jaffee McCabe, Artistic Collaboration in the Twentieth Century, Washington DC, 1984, p. 163 (b)
- Der unbekannte Hundertwasser, KunstHausWien, Vienna, 2008, p. 19 (c)
- HW-Die Kunst des grünen Weges, KunstHausWien, Vienna, 2011, pp. 68 (c), 212
- Kirche zu St. Jakobi, Stralsund, 2011, p. 28 (c)
- Hundertwasser, Japan und die Avantgarde, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Orangerie, Vienna, 2013, p. 61 (b)
- W. Hofmann, Das Werk, Winterthur, 1953 (b)
- Hundertwasser Bibel, Augsburg, 1995, AT, p. 21 (c)
- Westermanns Monatsheft, Braunschweig, 1974
- Coloured collotype print, Max Jaffé, Vienna, 1975 (repr.)
- Collotype print, Museums Betriebs Gesellschaft mbH, Vienna, 1997
- Hundertwasser 2004 Calendar, Taschen, Cologne
Hundertwasser's comment on the work
Actually a Brô in Hundertwasser colours. We made good on a promise we had made in Tuscany in August, 1949, to paint a "fresco" like Giotto's together. When the hunting lodge was torn down, the wall was sawed up into small pieces, brought to America in a container at the behest of Jean Aberbach and re-installed at a reformed synagogue on Long Island. (from: Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. 2, Taschen, Cologne, 2002, p. 191)