Impressive Original Still Life Painting by Franz Priking

Stunning still life of fruit by German artist Franz Priking. Painted primarily in shades of gold, deep green and black and housed in a beautiful frame that has gilded accents, this original work of art is a stunner. Signed and dated in the upper right hand corner "Pricking 1955". There is a label on the reverse side from World House Galleries on Madison Ave in NYC. The label states the artist is French (where he resided at the time this work was painted).Priking was born in Germany and was eleven years old when WWII broke out. It is said that the war influenced him and his art for the rest of his life. Immediately after the war he began to show an affinity for the Expressionist art that was banned by the Nazis. Priking was a student of Max Pechstein by 1948 at the Bauhaus, and by 1952 he had moved to southern France, meeting Picasso at Vallauris. Picasso is said to have strongly encouraged him, saying he would become one of the great artists of the century. He exhibited mostly in Europ