Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach (Hadamar 1851-1913 Capri)
Maja in Begleitung (auf der Kampenwand)
[Maja with Companion (on the Kampenwand)]
oil on canvas
88 x 67 cm
framed
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist, and thence by inheritance to a private collector in Germany, until its sale to The Daulton Collection at auction in 2021.
Dr. Claudia Wagner, author of the Diefenbach catalogue raisonne, has confirmed the painting's authenticity on the basis of a high-resolution photograph.
This painting was probably created in the summer of 1889 during Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach's stay in Traunstein or Aschau, from where he went on excursions to the Kampenwand, a mountain in the Bavarian Alps. He was accompanied on these excursions by his long-time acquaintance and then lover Maximiliane Schlotthauer, called Maja, as well as by his friend Georg Sinner, landowner at Rheinburg Castle in Baden. It seems likely that the two, Maja and Georg, are portrayed in the present painting.
Diefenbach exhibited the painting in his studio, as attested by at least two surviving photographs, showing Diefenbach and his famous acolyte Fidus (Hugo Höppener) in the presence of the painting:
