Pechstein's Schrei Am Meer up 100% on estimate in Munich

Schrei Am Meer (1919), a painting by Max Pechstein (1881-1955), sold for $2m at Ketterer Kunst in Munich on December 7 - an increase of 100% on a $1m valuation.

Pechstein was a leading German expressionist and a significant member of Die Brucke - a movement that explored abstraction through the visual language of primitivism.

Pechstein's Schrei am Meer features his wife and son

Schrei Am Meer was painted in Nidda, Hesse in western Germany shortly after his return from the first world war.

When the Nazis came to power, his work was almost immediately removed from German museums - along with that of many other artists deemed degenerate.

A number of his paintings appeared in the infamous Entarte Kunst (Degenerate Art) exhibition, held in 1937, which also featured work by Picasso and Van Gogh.

During this period, Pechstein went into hiding in Pomerania, emerging at the end of the war to be reinstated as a professor at the Berlin Akademie die Kunst - a role that he had been forced out of in 1933.

The record for his work was set by a double sided canvas, which achieved $4.7m at Ketterer Kunst in 2011.

Lotte mit Kopftuch (1919), also by Pechstein, was another high performing lot. It realised $1.5m against an estimate of $816,000 - up 90%.

It features a representation of Charlotte Kaprolat, his favourite model, whom he married in 1910.

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