Alastair (Karlsruhe 1887-1969 Munich), pseudonym of Hans Henning Otto Harry Baron von Voigt

Woman in Evening Gown

circa 1910

ink pen and watercolor on brownish paper

image 17,5 x 7,5 cm; sheet 34,5 x 22,5 cm

verso with an inscription in pencil by another hand

The Daulton Collection

Condition: insignificant traces of handling and slightly bumped edges; verso with slight traces of former mounting; overall in very good condition.

Provenance: private collection, Paris

Discussion:

"The versatile and polyglot Hans Henning Otto Harry Baron von Voigt entered the select Munich circle around Stefan George, Ludwig Derleth and others at the age of twenty in 1907 and introduced himself there under his stage name "Alastair". From the outset, the previously unknown young man presented himself as an eccentric bon vivant, stylish and shaped by the fin de siècle. A sophisticated self-taught man, Alastair was a draftsman, dancer, pianist, singer and poet. With his nonchalant manner and his dandy-like charm, he quickly attracted attention and rose to the top circles, not only in Munich, but in Germany, Europe and worldwide.  In 1913, six years after he joined the Munich scene, Alastair exhibited in New York. With the outbreak of the First World War, an entire epoch came to an abrupt end, and Alastair's meteoric career was cut so deep that the artist never recovered. A few commissions follow, but the glory and splendor of this opulent era, which Alastair brilliantly captured in his work, was irretrievable."  JvV

Alastair's work found international fame following the publication of his illustrations to Oscar Wilde's The Sphinx in 1920. 

References:

Hans H. Hofstätter, Symbolismus und die Kunst der Jahrhundertwende (Cologne: DuMont Buchverlag, 1978, first edition published 1964/65), at p. 152.