Friedrich August von Kaulbach (Munich 1850-1920 Ohlstadt bei Murnau am Staffelsee)

The Dream Dancer Magdeleine Guimet [Die Schlaftänzerin Magdeleine G.]

1904

oil on canvas

128,3 x 100,3 cm (50.5 x 39.5 in.)

signed center left: "F.A.v.Kaulbach"

estate stamp verso: "Nachlass F.A.v.Kaulbach"

in a frame with an oval window (the frame appears to have been repurposed from a previous Kaulbach painting)

The Daulton Collection

Provenance:

Estate of the Artist

possibly Galerie Heinemann, Munich  

private collection, Toronto, until 2023

Discussion:

It appears that the present painting is a highly-finished study for a closely-related composition that is in the collection of the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover [Lower Saxon State Museum Hanover], Inv. KM 335/1912; see: Klaus Zimmermanns, Friedrich August von Kaulbach 1850-1920, Monographie und Werkverzeichnis (Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1980), Kat. 347, pg. 249, ill. pg. 134 top ("Madame Madeleine, 1904") (reproduced below on this webpage).

Magdeleine Guipet (Tiflis, Russian Empire 1874 - 1915 Paris), also known as The Dream Dancer Magdeleine G. [Die Schlaftänzerin Magdeleine G.], was a French dancer who performed under hypnosis.  

"In 1902, because of nervous headaches that had resisted all attempts at treatment, Guipet visited the therapist and magnetist Émile Magnin, who was then a teacher at the École de Magnétisme in Paris. According to his account, Magnin quickly found that Guipet responded excellently to hypnotic suggestions.  In particular, she responded in trance with spontaneous expressive dance in the manner of Isadora Duncan to Chopin's Funeral March, compositions by Schubert, the poems of Paul Verlaine, and piano improvisations by well-known composers -- who soon gathered at the initially private performances organized by Magnin, which took place in the studios of the photographer Fred Boissonnas, the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and the painter Albert Besnard."  Deutsche Wikipedia (loose English translation).

"From 1904 onwards, Magnin organized performances throughout Europe with his medium, Guipet, who now appeared under the stage name Magdeleine G. Magdeleine G. appeared in the opera houses of several German cities [including Munich and Dresden], with particular success in Munich in 1904, where the court photographers took photos of her, the painters Albert von Keller and Friedrich August von Kaulbach portrayed her, and, among other members of the Munich Psychological Society, the doctor and researcher of parapsychological phenomena Albert von Schrenck-Notzing examined her. As a result, she became known in Bavaria and beyond as The Dream Dancer or The Sleep Dancer."  Deutsche Wikipedia (loose English translation).