Gabriel von Max (1840-1915)
Illustration to Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words"
1862
watercolor over graphite and black India ink on off-white paper
28,7 x 34,3 cm (11 5/16 x 13 1/2 in.)
signed and dated in red watercolor at lower left in body of drawing: "Gab. Max 1862"
Inscribed in black ink below drawing: four bars of Mendelssohn’s music; inscribed at lower right below music: F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. Lieder ohne Worte. 6tes Heft.
The original mat backing carried the following inscription: Spinnstube. Illustration zu einer Melodie / von Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy aus “Lieder ohne Worte” / Vorlage zu einem Blatt aus der 12-Blatt-Folge “Phantasiebilder aus Tonstücken,” die 1863 in photogr. / Reproduktionen in Wien erschien. [Room of the Weavers. Illustration to a melody / by Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy from "Songs without Words" / Template to a sheet from the 12-sheet cycle "Pictorial Fantasies of Musical Compositions," which appeared in 1863 in photogr. / Reproductions in Vienna.] This was the fifth sheet of the cycle or series.
"Spinnstube" ["Room of the Weavers"], also known as "Spinnerlied" ["Spinner's Song], "La Fileuse" ["The Spinners"], and the "Bee's Wedding" (because the busy accompaniment to the melody resembles the buzzing of bees), is piano piece 4 from Book 6, Op. 67, of Mendelssohn's "Songs Without Words."
Publication History:
1862 "Phantasiebilder aus Tonstücken," 12-Blatt-Folge, (Wien: Jägermayer & Companie)
1886 Agathon Klemt, "Gabriel Max und seine Werke," Die Graphischen Künste, ed. Oskar Berggruen, Jahrgang IX., Heft I (Wien: Gesellschaft für Vervielfältigende Kunst, 1886/87), discussed without illustration at pgs. 4 and 6.
1890 Nicolaus Mann, Gabriel Max, Eine kunsthistorische Skizze (Leipzig: J. J. Weber, 1890), ill. pg. 19, listed in Werkverzeichnis pg. 58. Illustrated with the title "Phantasiebilder aus Tonstücken: 'Ein Lied ohne Worte' von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy."
1891 Friedrich von Boetticher, Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, 4 volumes, Third, unchanged reprinting, (Hofheim am Taunus: H. Schmidt & C. Günther, 1979) (initially Fr. v. Boetticher's Verlag, Dresden 1891–1901), here volume one, second half, no. II. 17 (referenced without illustration).
1998 Margaret Mary Richter, Gabriel Max: The Artist, The Darwinist and The Spiritualist, PhD dissertation, New York University, 1998 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services, 1998), pg. 79, Fig. III:8 at pg. 597.
2010 Karin Althaus and Helmut Friedel, Gabriel von Max, Malerstar, Darwinist, Spiritist (München: Hirmer Verlag, 2010), pg. 57, ill. 33d.
2014 Aleš Filip, “MAXŮV CYKLUS OBRAZOVÝCH FANTAZIÍ K HUDEBNÍM
SKLADBÁM” [“Max’s Cycle of Pictorial Fantasies for Musical Compositions”], Musicologica Brunensia 2013 (Brno:
Masaryk University, 2014), Vol. 48,
issue 2, pgs. 39-58, illustrated at Pl. 2, pg. 43.
General References:
Adolf Kohut, "Gabriel Max," Westermanns illustrierte deutsche Monatshefte 54 (1883), pp. 173-186, discussing the “Phantasiebilder aus Tonstücken” drawings at p. 178.
Hans Marshall, "Gabriel Max. Zu seinem 70. Geburtstag am 23. August," Reclams Universum Moderne illustrierte Wochenschrift (Leipzig: Verlag Philipp Reclam, 1910), 26. Jahrgang, Zweiter Halbband, pgs.1160-1167, discussing "Phantasiebilder aus Tonstücken" drawings at pg. 1163.
Margaret Mary Richter, Gabriel Max: The Artist, The Darwinist and The Spiritualist, PhD dissertation, New York University, 1998 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services, 1998), Chpt. III ("The Phantasiebilder zu Tonstücken"), pgs. 71-90.
Andrea Gottdang, "'Vom Schalle Geweckte Träume,' Gabriel von Max und die Musik," in Karin Althaus and Helmut Friedel, Gabriel von Max, Malerstar, Darwinist, Spiritist (München: Hirmer Verlag, 2010), at pp. 56-63.
