Anselm Feuerbach
(Speyer 1829 - 1880 Venice)
Paeonies
1871
Tempera on canvas
99 x 78 cm
SOLD
Provenance:
Private collection, Germany
Sotheby's Munich, 1990, lot 62
Private collection, Rome
Literature:
Jürgen Ecker, Anselm Feuerbach. Leben und Werk. Kritischer Katalog der Gemälde, Ölskizzen und Ölstudien, Munich 1991, no. 476 B, repr.
The particular charm of this painting lies in its fragmentary character. The impression of non-finito gives free rein to the viewer's imagination. The thinly applied opaque ground displays traces of rapidly sketched preliminary drawing in white tempera. The paeony blossoms are handled with extraordinary virtuosity. Viewed from various angles, their petals are depicted with a masterly touch in rapid, fluid brushstrokes.[1] The definition of spatial relationships is ambiguous, although the underlying area of black - possibly intended to represent a pedestal vase - can be interpreted as a tentative indication of the composition's placement in pictorial space. Feuerbach has interrupted work on the painting at the precise moment in which an illusion of pictorial space is created. This presents fascinating insights into his working methods.
Ecker sees the present painting as contemporaneous with a group of three other, more highly finished, flower pieces. One is on permanent exhibition at the Neue Pinakothek in Munich. Its pendant is in the collection of the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Karlsruhe. Both works are dated 1871. The whereabouts of the third work remain unknown. Ecker suggests that the group was executed during the stages preparatory to Feuerbach's second version of his Banquet of Plato.[2] This painting, completed in 1873, depicts a rich profusion of intertwined garlands of flowers with the figure of Alcibiades.[3]
Werner Zimmermann comments on Feuerbach's flower pieces: [...] It is precisely in the more minor works like these that Feuerbach's painterly virtuosity is more clearly displayed.[4] It was often the case when he did not feel constrained by the demands of a major artistic project that he achieved an extraordinary freedom of execution and uninhibited perceptive realism.
The 1870s saw him produce, in his late period when he was at the peak of his fame, two of his best-known works, Medea and the second version of Iphigenia. In 1872 he received a large number of important public commissions and was appointed professor of history painting at the Vienna Academy.
[1] Die federnd leicht wirkende, prachtvolle Blütenentfaltung ist aus der Farbe entwickelt ['The lightness, delicacy and richness of the blooms are derived from his use of colour.'], J. Ecker, Anselm Feuerbach. Leben und Werk, Munich 1991, p.317.
[2] Ecker 460, oil on canvas, 295 x 598, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, (first version) and Ecker 489, 1873, oil on canvas, 401 x 733 cm, Nationalgalerie Berlin; Feuerbach counters criticism of the first version by intensifying his palette and enriching the decorative qualities of his work.
[3] Ecker 474, Flower Study, Roses, 1871, oil on canvas, 56 x 78 cm, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe; Ecker 475, Flower Study, Paeonies, 1871, oil on canvas, 55 x 83,5cm, Neue Pinakothek, Munich; Ecker 476, Flower Study, Tulips, oil on canvas, 569 x 127 cm (whereabouts unknown).
[4] [... ] gerade in solchen Gelegenheitsarbeiten wird Feuerbachs malerisches Können besonders deutlich, Werner Zimmermann, Anselm Feuerbach. Gemälde und Zeichnungen aus der Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe 1978, p.49f.