Max Klinger (1857-1920) 

"Zweite Zukunft" ["Second Future"]

1879-1880

etching and aquatint on chine appliqué on sturdy wove paper

26,7 x 29,5 cm (plate)

trial proof of the second state of eight (with the plate number, IV, upper right, but before all inscriptions)

signed in pencil lower right: M. Klinger

Provenance:  ex coll. W. E. Müller (Lugt 5075)

Plate IV from Klinger's print cycle Eva und die Zukunft - Opus III [Eva and the Future - Opus III].

Singer (catalogue raisonne) 46 II.

"A naked man sits astride a monstrous leech, which is swimming to the left in a sea of blood.  He has claws on his hands and carries a barbed harpoon."  Singer 

"The German painter, sculptor, and printmaker Max Klinger created dream worlds filled with dark, evocative symbolism.  Eve and the Future, a strange cycle of etchings, treats the biblical subject of the Fall by envisioning three future consequences of Eve’s sin.  The Second Future represents the time after Eve has taken the forbidden fruit and discovered her nakedness—and, in Klinger’s view, her sexuality.  Here Klinger gives us a satyr-like creature holding a spear atop a primordial snake swimming in a wasteland.  Is there any distance between this predatory, prehistoric human and animals?  It is truly a fall from grace.  Aquatint enables Klinger to achieve an otherworldly, almost hallucinatory atmosphere for his fantastical creatures."  https://collections.artsmia.org/art/43476/zweite-zukunft-max-klinger