Unsigned - c. 1900, . "Nymph with small satyr", oil/canvas, relaxed scene of a reclining female nude in a forest-like landscape, the nymph lies calmly on a green background, in front of her a small satyr lies flat on his stomach, he has put away his large yellow ball, with which he was probably still busy playing, and is completely absorbed in contemplating the beautiful woman lying in front of him. The contrasting colors of the incarnation of the two, the female nude with a bright, luminous incarnation, the small satyr with dark hair and a brownish skin coloring intensify the depicted pictorial theme, the rest of the ground of the picture is kept in a brown earth tone, which appears brightened in the upper part of the painting by yellow color parts.
Old restoration of the canvas, relined, approx. 56x87cm, not quite matching magnificent frame, damaged, glued several times, parts missing, approx. 92x110cm, inscribed "Franz v. Stuck, 1890 Munich" on the reverse of the stretcher
Subject in the style of Franz von Stuck, German draughtsman, painter and sculptor. The Munich painter is generally regarded as a mystical symbolist, an overcomer of naturalism and impressionism, which he despised, and thus as a mediator between 19th century painting guided by academic principles and the dawn of modernism. One of his best-known motifs is the music-making faun, which almost became a trademark of the artist, who was influenced by Arnold Böcklin. In 1896, Franz von Stuck co-founded the magazine "Pan" and was responsible for the magazine's cover. Franz von Stuck's approach to Greek mythology was not very differentiated, and certainly not true to the text, and he shaped his own compositions; the Munich painter had and still has his greatest impact with famous, archetypal subjects, which remain the artist's "trademark" to this day. When choosing his subjects, he said himself that he wanted to depict "only the purely human, the eternally valid", by revealing and naming psychological and human driving forces - virtue and sin, evil and visions of doom, the sensual-dionysian, temptation, sacrifice and martyrdom, the struggle for existence and the battle of the sexes - and confronting the public with them, he banishes the unconscious. He continued to develop his independent pictorial language, which was revolutionary in the 1890s, his color field painting and favorite subjects until the end of his life in the 1920s.
For a similar pictorial theme, see Franz von Stuck, Teasing, 1899, oil on canvas, approx. 47 x 49.5 cm, the pictorial theme, "Nymph and Satyr", is part of a long art-historical tradition, cf. motifs in the 18th century by Friedrich Bury (1763-1823), based on a model by Romano Giulio (1499-1546), the variation of this pictorial theme in this painting is very idiosyncratic and is therefore very much in keeping with the trend of the period in which it was created
No estimate
