Lot 1195 | Two Venetian Women

BLAAS, EUGEN VON
1843 Albano Laziale - 1931 Venice


Title: Two Venetian Women.
The ring.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 107 x 66 cm.
Notation: Eugen von Blaas / 1896
Provenance:
Private collection, Europe.

For artists it has always been a primary concern to capture human moods, moods and experiences in their images and to make them recognisable and re-experienceable for the viewer. Paintings with motifs from everyday life offered inexhaustible themes and these genre images are still fascinating today, as they open a window to the past and allow the art lover to take a direct share in the historical atmosphere.
The viewers of the paintings can be "addressed" in various ways by the people depicted. They can be neutral spectators of a scene, take on the role of a voyeur or even enter into a special kind of communication with a model. The decisive factor here is the gaze with which the persons in the painting suggest a contact out of the painting - or not.

The great appeal of such representations can be felt in three paintings by two main masters of salon painting of the second half of the 19th century, which are offered in this auction:
Eugen von Blaas' painting "Zwei Venezianerinnen" (The Ring), dated 1896, shows two pretty young women who - against the background of the Venetian city scenery - seem to have had to take a break to fetch water, because there is a novelty: the right ring finger of the standing woman is decorated with an apparently new ring which she presents to her friend who has sat down on a wall which borders the front image space. The painter masterfully characterises the newly engaged woman: the contrapuntal shifting of weight, the left supported on the hip with the elbow bent, the arm and hand posture of the demonstrated right make pride and also a little complacency of the sitter clear. A detail such as the bright red stockings and also the facial expressions of the young woman reinforce her perky impression.
The friend sitting on the wall, on the other hand, seems much more reserved in her nature. She looks down on the new piece of jewellery from her raised seat, holding the ringed hand of her friend. Her face is in shadow, giving the impression that she is slightly blushing. Her left hand rests on her friend's shoulder, her legs have been crossed chastely. She is happy about the big news and enjoys the intensely friendly moment in which the viewer of the painting can also participate.
The background and surroundings of the scene are strongly reduced in colour. Beige and ochre coloured townhouses, trees in a tender pink spring pile, a dilapidated, partly plastered wall and the grey stone floor in the foreground contrast not only in colour but also with the two young, neat and brightly dressed signorinas. The painter Eugen von Blaas has also repeatedly addressed the contrast of youth in front of the old city silhouette in his work. The two young women almost embody spring, the engagement marks the beginning of a new phase of life, but the venerable city has seen many such springs.
Born in 1843, Eugen von Blaas (also Eugenio de Blaas) was the son of the highly successful and popular Austrian painter Carl von Blaas, who was awarded the hereditary title of nobility for his services to art. Eugen von Blaas, like his brother Julius, was encouraged and taught by his father at an early age and was sent to the best painter colleagues at the academies in Rome and Venice.
Eugen von Blaas, who later taught as a professor himself at these academies, mastered the painterly craft and amazed his contemporaries especially with his ability to create all the details of his paintings with the same meticulous care, creating an almost photo-realistic plasticity.
In the painting offered here von Blaas applied another trick: The details in the foreground are meticulously executed with technical perfection. The painter paid as much attention to the incarnate parts of the young ladies as to the various fabric textures, the jagged brickwork or the metal and earthenware vessels in the foreground. The world beyond the wall, however, lies in a light haze, the Venetian sfumato. Through this sophistication, Eugen de Blaas focuses the viewer's gaze on the foreground and emphasizes its plasticity even more.