Marcel René von Herrfeldt

Marcel René von Herrfeldt (born September 2, 1889 in Boulogne-Billancourt near Paris , † June 24, 1965 in Munich ) was a German nude painter from the circle of artists at the Munich Secession . Initially arrested in Art Nouveau , Herrfeldt found an expressive realism of his own through his intensive occupation with body painting.

Life

Marcel René by Mr. Feldt came in 1889 as the son of the artist couple Alice Mr. Feldt and Luis Ricardo Falero born. Their meeting place, the Paris of the Fin de Siècle , was also Herrfeldt's birthplace.

Herrfeldt devoted himself to painting from an early age and studied, with interruptions due to the war, mainly in Munich, Florence and Paris, whereby his work was clearly influenced by the lessons from Franz von Stuck ; At the beginning in several respects, also with regard to the style of painting, later mainly with regard to the choice of motif or subject. Regarding the latter, his father - Luis Ricardo Falero - can also be considered a decisive inspiration.

Although Herrfeldt's curriculum vitae has not yet been completely reconstructed, important stages in his vita can be named: What is certain is that he received a lot of attention in 1921 when he took part in the annual exhibition of the Munich Secession in the Glaspalast for the first time with his interpretation of the female slave .

Herrfeldt's strong attention in the interwar years, however, visibly evaporated in the course of the Second World War, especially with the dissolution of the Munich Secession in the course of art and cultural purges in the Third Reich.

Herrfeldt resumed work in his Munich studio in 1951; Overall, however, he did not succeed in building on the successes of the interwar years. Herrfeldt's work was only awarded the Diplôme d'honneur in 1971 posthumously - six years after his death.

Herrfeldt was in a relationship with the author Germaine, who has modeled several works for the artist.

plant

"Herrfeldt cannot simply be classified in a certain art movement or group." Looking at the entirety of his oeuvre, two phases can be roughly distinguished: an early phase of Art Nouveau and a late phase of expressive realism of its own. On the other hand, a certain continuity with regard to his subjects can be discerned, whereby Herrfeldt distinguishes himself as a body painter / nude painter and prefers to draw from the extensive repertoire of astrology and Greek mythology.

inspiration

Regarding the choice of motifs, both his biological father, the Spanish engineer and painter Luis Ricardo Falero , who in his works associates the female body with topics from astrology and astronomy, and Franz von Stuck , an important representative of the Munich Secession, with his preference for mythological themes, are seen as essential sources of ideas. Herrfeldt shared his preference for nudes and female bodies with numerous contemporaries and other art movements, such as the Vienna Secession , and well-known representatives such as Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele .

style

In its beginnings still strongly attached to Art Nouveau, Herrfeldt found in the course of time an expressive realism of its own. In the context of this, the impasto, static-based approach is replaced by a fluid and smooth painting style, whereby the fine layer of paint applied to the canvas is typical.

Key works, themes and motifs

When choosing a topic, Herrfeldt draws from a broad spectrum of ancient mythology and astrology. His intensive preoccupation with nude painting also earned him the nickname “Herald of Beauty”, coined by Max Drost.

The affinity to astrology is particularly evident in his late work Poseidon , the completion of which dates back to 1960 and which the artist himself regards as the main work and the completion of his creativity. With this work, Herrfeldt not only arrives at his portrayal of the mythological sea deity, the date of its completion probably coincides with the much-discussed turn of the Aquarian age in the astrological calendar. Another peculiarity is that Herrfeldt almost exclusively dates the completion of this painting exactly - to 1960.

The fact that Herrfeldt devoted himself not only to female, but also to male nudes, is already announced in earlier works, for example in connection with his reclining Narcissus .

Important depictions of women are in particular his interpretations of Salome with the head of John the Baptist and Judith with the head of Holophernes . Looking at Herrfeldt's biography or from today's perspective, the slave can also be counted among the key works, as the artist gained fame through their exhibition in 1921 in the Glaspalast.

Other motifs in the area of ​​nude and body representations are his orgies, lesbian, music and movement scenes as well as the element of water, which Herrfeldt conducts intensive studies on.

Looking at the entirety of his work, the (emancipation of) women also forms a red thread, whereby the combination of an extremely self-confident, expressive representation of women with a strongly idealized representation of the body reminiscent of ancient body representations is extremely tense and very provocative, especially in the 1920s must have worked.

Topicality

Although an explicit reference to Herrfeldt's oeuvre is rarely made today, his choice of subject and presentation are currently relevant: Herrfeldt can be seen as a pioneer of pin-up culture; His way of depicting the human body lives on today, especially in photography, and refers to contemporary ideals of beauty. The tension between erotic, also idealized body representations and emancipation (of the woman) is not only a controversy in the context of the time, but has been renegotiated over and over again since then, currently for example in connection with the Femen movement.

literature

• Max Drost: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. A herald of beauty . In: Die Schönheit 8, 1925, pp. 358–369.
• Karl Johann: Herrfeldt Marcel . In: From the artist studios of June 26th and 7th district . Self-published by the author, Munich 1929, pp. 53, 52, 143.
• Ova .: pure eroticism . In: Lui 1982, No. 7, pp. 60-72.
• Horst Ludwig: In the waters of the secession . In: Franz von Stuck and his students . Dr. C. Wolf and Son KG, Munich 1989, pp. 210-239.
• Horst Ludwig: Munich painter in the 19th century . Vol. 5, Bruckmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-7654-1805-6 , pp. 382-383.
• New Pinakothek Munich. Inventory catalog . Bavarian State Painting Collections, Munich 1999.
• Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000 ([www.artocratia.ch]).

Movie

• Stephan Kayser : Marcel von Herrfeldt - Herald of the Beauty of Women (1978)
• Stephan Kayser: Magma - A journey from here to there (1980)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Horst Ludwig: "In the waters of the Secession". In: Franz von Stuck and his students. Dr. C. Wolf and Son KG, Munich 1989, p. 213.
2. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 12.
3. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 25
4. ↑ Max Drost: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. A herald of beauty . In: Die Schönheit 8, 1925, p. 358.
5. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 12.
6. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 7.
7. ↑ [1]
8. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 11.
9. ↑ Max Drost: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. A herald of beauty . In: Die Schönheit 8, 1925, p. 358.
10. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 19.
11. ↑ Klaus Robert Zeller: Marcel René von Herrfeldt. The MRH collection . Artocratia, Zurich 2000, p. 25.