Gabriel von Max

 

Traviata,

oil on canvas, 1893
 

"Traviata" 

(Portrait of the courtesan Violetta from Verdi's opera La traviata [The Fallen Woman])

                                               

 oil on canvas

 1893

 83,5 x 66,5 cm 

 signed 



This beautiful painting is a portrait of the courtesan Violetta from Verdi's opera La traviata [The Fallen Woman], resting in her bed chamber as she suffers from tuberculosis that will ultimately take her life.  Her tragic fate is symbolized by the moth (probably a death's-head hawkmoth) that von Max places conspicuously to her right, as well as by the disintegrating camellia and the timepiece that she holds.


Catalogue Raisonné: Richter 229

 

 

Provenance: 


Sammlung [Collection] Heinrich Neumann, Munich


Auction of Sammlung Heinrich Neumann, Dorotheum, Vienna, 22-24 February 1904, Cat. Nr. 96


Auction, C. J. Wawra, Vienna, 17. November 1913, No. 84


Private collection, Vienna
Exhibition History:

1893     Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung des Vereins bildender Künstler Münchens (A.V.) "Secession."  This was the first exhibition of the Munich Secession (which actually took place in Berlin at the Landesausstellungsgebäude am Lehrter Bahnhof).

1893     H. L. Neumann, Munich, June 1893

1894     Akademischen Kunst-Ausstellung zu Dresden.  This was the first exhibition of the Dresden Secession.

1895     "Sonderausstellung der neuester Gemälde von Prof. Gabriel Max in München," Österreichische Kunst-Verein (399 Ausstellung), Vienna, opened March 31, 1895

1896     Galerie Mikuláš (Nikolaus) Lehmann, Prague.  (See Michal Šimek, "Gabriel Max a Praha" ["Gabriel Max and Prague"], thesis, Univerzita Karlova, Prague, 2009, pg. 83.)

1896     Kunstverein für Böhmen (Krasoumná jednota), Rudolfinum, Prague.  See Šimek at pg. 85.

1897     "Second Annual Exhibition," Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, November 4, 1897 - January 1, 1898.

1905     Kunstverein für Böhmen (Krasoumná jednota), Rudolfinum, Prague.  See Šimek at pg. 85.

Publication History: 


Offizieller Katalog Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung des Vereins bildender Künstler Münchens (A.V.) "Secession" (Munich: A. Bruckmann's Verlag, 1893), referenced without illustration as catalogue no. 368 at pg. 22 and marked as "for sale."


Georg Fuchs, "Erste internationale Kunstausstellung des Vereins bildende Künstler, München, 'Secession'," Allegemeine Kunst-Chronik, VII, No. 21 (1893), pgs. 597-601, at pg. 600: "... 'Traviata' mit so blutroten Lippen, hektischen Wangen, erloschenen Blicken und atemlosen Brüsten, dass man sich unwillkürlich an die Brust greift und hüstelt."


"Kunst und Kunstgewerbe," Illustrierte Zeitung, 100, No. 2605 (June 3, 1893), pg. 599 (reviewing the exhibition at H. L. Neumann's Kunstsalon in Munich and singling out "Traviata" for special mention, without illustration).


Illustrirter Katalog der Akademischen Kunst-Ausstellung zu Dresden (Dresden: C. C. Meinhold & Söhne, 1894), referenced without illustration as catalogue no. 274 at pg. 22 and marked as "for sale."


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, p. 99, no. 152 (referenced without illustration).


Margaret Mary Richter, Gabriel Max: The Artist, The Darwinist and The Spiritualist, PhD dissertation, New York University, 1998 (Ann Arbor: UMI Dissertation Services, 1998), cat. no. 229, at pgs. 451-452.


Michal Šimek, "Gabriel Max a Praha" ["Gabriel Max and Prague"], thesis, Univerzita Karlova, Prague, 2009, pg. 83 (referenced without illustration).


Aleš Filip and Roman Musil, eds., Gabriel von Max (1840-1915) (Plzni, Czech Republic: Arbor Vitae and Západoceská galerie v Plzni, 2011), p. 217, ill. 288.


Johanna Johnen, "A Woman Consumed by Emotion: Gabriel von Max's Traviata and Tuberculosis as a Disease of Sensibility," in: Silvia Marin Barutcieff (ed.), Depicting Emotions in East and Central Europe (1400-1900), Pisa 2024, p.131-147, ill. 8.1 at p. 186.

Contact:

The Daulton Collection

thedaultoncollection@outlook.com