Max Kurzweil (Bisenz 1867-1916 Vienna)
"Der Polster" ["The Cushion"] (the artist's wife, Martha Kurzweil, sitting on the divan) circa 1903
color woodcut on China paper proof before letters
28,6 x 26 cm (image), 56 x 45 cm (sheet size)
signed in pencil lower right: "Max Kurzweil" The Daulton Collection
magnificent, wonderfully deeply colored and clear impression, with a wide, probably full, margin
condition: only faint signs of age and marginal handling, small pencil numbering on verso, otherwise perfectly preserved
A rare, signed proof impression of this iconic Jugendstil print that was published in Jahresmappe der Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst, Wien [Annual Portfolio of the Society for Reproductive Art, Vienna], 1903.
Novotny/Adolph 428.
"Max Kurzweil was one of the founding members of the Vienna Secession in 1897. His decorative prints with elegant contours and vibrant combination of patterns show a clear influence of Impressionist artists such as Edouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard. 'The Cushion' is Kurzweil's best-known work; it shows his wife Martha on the divan, her face hidden and her hand raised in a strained gesture. Produced for the 'Annual Folder of the Society for Replicating Art, Vienna,' 1903." B
|
Max Kurzweil (Bisenz 1867-1916 Vienna)
"Der Polster" ["The Upholstery"] (the artist's wife, Martha Kurzweil, sitting on the divan)
circa 1903
color woodcut from four printing blocks in pale blue and green tones as well as delicate yellow, on china paper
trial proof
a rare color variant
28,6 x 26 cm (image), 56 x 45 cm (sheet size)
The Daulton Collection
Magnificent print, strong in its nuanced coloring, with a marvelous pressure relief. With fine margins all around, cut to the left of the image. Flawless and in excellent condition.
Ths is a trial proof of Kurzweil's iconic woodcut in a color variant that has probably not been recorded. Fritz Novotny and Hubert Adolph describe in their monograph on Kurzweil (Max Kurzweil. A Painter of the Viennese Secession, Vienna / Munich 1969) three test prints that differ from the color of the final version for publication (see above). Our example in subtle blue tones corresponds most closely to variant A (blue, gray shadow) described there. See: Novotny/Adolph, catalogue no. 428. See also: Tobias G. Natter, Max Hollein, Klaus Albrecht Schröder, eds., Art for All: The Color Woocut in Vienna Around 1900 (Cologne: Taschen, 2016), pgs. 128-129
|
From 1886, Max Kurzweil studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna [Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien] with Prof. Christian Griepenkerl, and attended the Académie Julian in Paris from 1892, where he exhibited his first painting at the Salon in 1894. He was co-founder of the Vienna Secession in 1897, and an editor and illustrator of the influential Secessionist magazine Ver Sacrum [Sacred Spring]. Kurzweil was also professor at the Art School for Women and Girls [Kunstschule für Frauen und Mädchen], later known as the Vienna Women’s Academy [Wiener Frauenakademie]. In 1905, he was awarded the Villa Romana prize. … In 1916, he committed suicide together with his student and lover, Helene Heger. Despite his relatively short career, Kurzweil is considered one of the most significant representatives of the Viennese Secessionist movement.
The Daulton Collection owns two original photographs of Kurzweil and his fellow art students on an excursion with Prof. Griepenkerl's class in 1890:
|
Anonymous Photographer The Griepenkerl School Excursion 1890 (the class of Prof. Christian Griepenkerl, Akademie der bildenden
Künste, Vienna)
1890 16,4 x 21,8 cm
vintage albumen print, mounted on the original
cardboard titled and dated in ink on the mount upper right: "Ausflug Der Schule Griepenkerl 1890." ["The Griepenkerl School Excursion 1890."] also with contemporary annotations in ink on the mount at bottom identifying the depicted class members and their professor
The Daulton Collection
|
Depicted are the artists Ferdinand Schmutzer, G.
Hartinger, L. Kainradt, D.(most likely Adolf) Karpellus, F. L. Graf, Siegmund
L’Allemand (teacher at the Academy), Karl Bis, Lajos Kolosvary, K. Gsur, Max
Kurzweil, Fr. Stattler, and Franz Antoine (der jüngere), and the head of the
Meisterklasse Christian Griepenkerl.
|
detail showing Max Kurzweil (at age 23):
|
detail showing Prof. Christian Griepenkerl:
|
Christian Griepenkerl (Oldenburg 1839-1916 Vienna) was the teacher of a whole generation of
painters in Vienna. His most famous pupils were Carl Moll (1880/81), Alfred
Roller, Max Kurzweil, Carl Otto Czeschka (1894–99), Richard Gerstl (1898/99),
Egon Schiele (1906–08), Anton Faistauer (1906–09), Rudolf Jettmar, and Franz von Bayros. Posthumously, Griepenkerl became famous for his rejection of Adolf Hitler's application to the Academy of Fine Arts.
|
Photo 2, taken on the same excursion:
|
Anonymous Photographer The Griepenkerl School Excursion 1890 (the class of Prof. Christian Griepenkerl, Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna)
1890 16,7 x 21 cm
collodion paper print collage (or vintage albumen print?), mounted on the original cardboard titled and dated in ink on the mount upper right: "Ausflug Der Schule Griepenkerl 1890." ["The Griepenkerl School Excursion 1890."] also with contemporary annotations in ink on the mount at bottom identifying the depicted class members
The Daulton Collection
|
Depicted are the artists F. Schmutzer, M. Kurzweil. Al. Pock, F. Antoine, G. Lautenschläger, and others.
|
detail showing Max Kurzweil (at age 23):
|
|
Symbolismus
The Daulton Collection
info@symbolismus.com
Instagram: @thedaultoncollection
|
|
|
|
