Oskar Althaus, oil painting "City Street

Artist: Oskar Althaus (1908 Frenkendorf, † 1965 Basel)

Title: Stadt-Gasse / City Street 

Technique: Oil on hardboard

Size: 96 x 41 cm, with frame 116.5 x 61.5 cm

Signature: Monogrammed lower left in the picture - OA. Below in passe-partout, with artist's metal plaque

Frame: Framed in a high-quality, corner-mounted and gilded wooden frame. The frame may present knocks and signs of wear. 

This powerful oil painting, City Street, by Swiss expressionist Oskar Althaus (1908–1965) captures the raw atmosphere of urban life with striking emotional depth. Far from a simple cityscape, the work conveys the restless energy of the modern world through bold color contrasts, textured brushwork, and Althaus’s unmistakable sense of drama.

The street unfolds in layers of dynamic strokes — angular buildings, silhouettes in motion, shadows stretching across the ground — all rendered with a tactile, almost sculptural application of paint. The palette is intense and moody, with earthy browns, deep blues, and sudden flashes of brighter tones that inject life into the urban architecture.

What makes this painting so compelling is its emotional charge: the viewer immediately feels the tension between solitude and movement, between the anonymity of the city and the human presences that inhabit it. Althaus transforms an everyday street into a psychological landscape, rich with atmosphere and inner meaning.

His signature expressionist style is unmistakable. The forms are simplified but powerful, the lines vigorous, the composition slightly distorted to heighten the emotional effect — hallmarks of a painter who sought truth not in realism, but in the intensity of lived experience

Oskar Althaus (1908–1965) was a Swiss painter born in Frenkendorf and later active in Basel. His early life was shaped by hardship, including the loss of his mother, after which he travelled across Switzerland and Europe as an artisan, absorbing diverse artistic influences.

In 1937, he settled in Basel to pursue formal artistic training, studying at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule and under the Bernese painter Ernst Nyffenegger. Althaus developed a deeply expressionist visual language, drawing inspiration from artists such as Albert Müller, Hermann Scherer, and above all Georges Rouault, whose emotional intensity and spiritual depth left a profound mark on him.

Althaus was known for his rebellious, uncompromising character. He resisted the commercial art world, avoided gallery systems, and held firm to his artistic and moral convictions. His paintings, often raw and emotionally charged, reflect a sense of urgency and sincerity rarely encountered in mid-century Swiss art.

Though he exhibited in cities like Basel, Zurich, Bern, and Milan, he remained on the margins of mainstream movements. He died in his Basel studio at the age of 57, leaving behind a body of work that is today being rediscovered for its expressive power and authenticity.

Paintings by Oskar Althaus are relatively scarce on the market, increasing their desirability.

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