Lot 1198 | Standing Nude

HOFMANN, LUDWIG VON
1861 Darmstadt - 1945 Pillnitz


Title: Standing Nude.
Technique: Charcoal drawing on paper.
Measurement: 47 x 33cm.
Notation: Monogrammed lower right: LvH.
Frame/Pedestal: Framed.
Verso:
Lithograph Garden of Paradise.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Ludwig Hofmann was born in 1861, initially without the title of nobility, which he received in 1882 when his father rose to become Minister President of the Grand Duchy of Hesse. He studied from 1883 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden, which at the time was still strongly influenced by the traditional art of the Nazarenes. Therefore he changed to the academy of arts in Karlsruhe and as a pupil of the historicism painter Ferdinand Keller (lot 1190 and 1195) he received lessons in the handling of colour which was missed in Dresden and which was to have a strong influence on his development. He received further inspiration during a study visit to Paris.
His art is characterised by its idealised pictorial worlds. The depictions move between different styles and combine Symbolism with styles of Historicism, Expressionism, New Objectivity and Art Nouveau.
In this FINE ART auction, VAN HAM is able to offer two female nudes from a German private collection that illustrate the diversity of his oeuvre.
The painting "Reclining Nude" (lot 1199), which has been reduced to the essential both in its colourfulness and its pictorial composition, shows a woman depicted in ochre and brown tones lying on a large light sheet. The focus is on her abdomen, while her head protrudes into the darkened background. Despite the composition and colouring, which are unusual for von Hofmann, he adopts here a posture reminiscent of representations from antiquity and the Renaissance, such as Michelangelo's Personification of the Morning in the Medici Chapel in Florence.
The charcoal drawing (lot 1198), which also shows a female nude, is captivating due to the expressive and self-confident posture of the sitter, typical of von Hofmann, and is inspired by representations of women in the reception of antiquity, which run through von Hofmann's entire oeuvre. He made the present study on the reverse of a print of the colour lithograph "Adam and Eve". The lithograph was made in Rome in 1896, where the artist repeatedly stayed between 1894 and 1900. In 1897 it was published as a sidebar to the poem "Im Winter" by Emil Alfred Herman in the most influential German Art Nouveau magazine "PAN".
Ludwig von Hofmann is one of the most important Symbolists in this country. He was a member of the "Deutscher Künstlerbund" as well as the "Berliner Sezession" and the "Gruppe der Elf", which were among the most important artists' associations at the time. He also associated with numerous important representatives of the artistic and literary avant-garde, such as Gerhart Hauptmann or Henry van de Velde. He collaborated with the latter on several building projects. His work, which ranges from monumental painting to paintings and illustrations, still transports us today to dreamy worlds all of our own. It is not without reason that his works - after having been almost forgotten in the post-war period - have been and are still to be found in important collections.