Steinzeitmensch [Stone-Age Man]
circa 1890s
pencil on paper
measurements in cm: 33,0 x 21,0 (image/sheet)
Inscribed upper right: Chelléu
Provenance:
Estate (Nachlass) of the Artist
Galerie Konrad Bayer, Munich, from whom The Daulton Collection acquired the drawing
Publication History:
1980 Im Haus des Affenmalers Gabriel Max, a film by Percy Adlon
The drawing's inscription Chelléu appears to be a reference to the prehistoric site of Chelles near Paris, where, in the mid-19th century, anthropologist Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet discovered Paleolithic artifacts. Mortillet assigned these artifacts (stone tools) to a period he called Chellean or Chellian, a period now known as Olduwan. The reference attests to the depth of von Max's knowledge of the nascent field of paleoanthropology and reveals how these discoveries captured his artistic imagination.
