STUCK, FRANZ VON1863 Tettenweis - 1928 Tetschen


Title: Portrait of an Old Lady with Pearl Necklace.
Date: 1910s.
Technique: Pastel, heightened in white on paper.
Measurement: 61.5 x 50.5cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: "Franz / von / Stuck".
Frame: Framed.
Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Women's portraits are essential in Franz von Stuck's work. With his most famous and symbolic work "Die Sünde", he shaped the gaze on women around 1900 with his erotic type of women, the "femme fatale". A strong affinity to antiquity and the Romans as well as his fascination for female nature shaped his creative process. The majority of his work deals with the mysteriousness of women and the ambivalence of human sexuality. Our pastel shows a young woman in profile who is turning her head towards the viewer. Her gaze is open and, at the same time, ambiguous: Is it influenced by curiosity or does it express distrust? Or does it even convey cool indifference - towards the man gazing upon her? In a subtle way Stuck knows to choose the right stimuli in the portrait: the earring directs the gaze towards the earlobe that is not hidden by her hair while the pearl necklace is falling into the red dress and on a presumably bared décolleté. With only a few means, the artist creates an intense presence of sensual femininity.

Stuck was one of the most influential and central figures of the Fin de siècle in Munich. In 1892, he founded the Münchener Secession together with his artist colleague Wilhelm Trübner that can be understood as a counter pole to the established artists. In his pursuit for the total artwork, Stuck was able to create a unique synthesis of painting, sculpture and decorative art.