Tilla Durieux as Circe
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| Tilla Durieux as Circe |
|---|
| Franz von Stuck , around 1912 |
| Oil painting |
| 60 × 68 cm |
| Old National Gallery , Berlin |
Tilla Durieux as Circe is an oil painting by Franz von Stuck that was created around 1912. The picture, painted in the symbolist style, shows the Austrian actress Tilla Durieux in her role as the sorceress Circe in the play of the same name by Calderón . The picture has belonged to the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin since 1969 on permanent loan from the Federal Republic of Germany .
Description, background and interpretation
The painting is a half-portrait and has the dimensions 60 × 68 cm. It is executed in oil painting on wood. The gilded frame of the picture was made according to a design by Franz von Stuck. The picture bears the signature and inscription on the lower left FRANZ VON STVCK TILLA DVRIEVX ALS CIRCE. It was created in Munich; it has the inventory number FV 90.
Tilla Durieux was the most painted actress of her era. Franz von Stuck alone portrayed them in six different versions. The contact came through her husband Paul Cassirer , with whom von Stuck maintained business relations. In 1912 Tilla Durieux had a guest appearance in the Munich Artists' Theater, where she appeared as the sorceress Circe in the play of the same name based on Calderón , which was arranged by Georg Fuchs . Von Stuck invited the actress to his Munich studio, and several photos were taken of her dressed in stage costume, either by Franz or Mary von Stuck. One of these photos then served as the basis for the painting.
Tilla Durieux is portrayed in the scene of the play, the dramatic climax in which Circe offers Odysseus the herbal drink in order to transform him into a tame animal. Her seductive expectant gaze is shown in profile, the figure appears isolated, as is usual with Stuck, without spatial integration, stage design or story. It's all about the person who is beautiful and dangerous. During that time of symbolism, women in the fine arts were simultaneously femme fatale , saints and whores as objects of bourgeois male desire . Parallels to such an image of women from the fin de siècle can also be found, for example, in Richard Strauss ' opera Salome .
In his right hand, Circe holds a bowl adorned with a lion relief, an allusion to the lions who were once human visitors to her island and who are now kept in an enclosure by her. The left arm hangs slightly backwards. She wears jewelry in the form of a gold earring with pearls and three rings can be seen on her fingers. Her blue dress only covers the left shoulder. The red hair is pinned up, but individual strands have come loose, which can be interpreted as a symbol of the slightly wickedness of the Circe. Her eyes, which are slightly lowered and stretched out, look upwards and her brows are rimmed and drawn in black, and the lips of the slightly open mouth are made up in red, corresponding to the hair. Her skin is alabaster , an ideal of beauty. Your gaze is directed to the left to an imaginary point outside the picture. She waits for the reaction of her counterpart, who is not visible to the viewer. The light source for illuminating the figure is on the front left outside the picture.
Von Stuck uses a black, eerie background in his picture, against which the figure emerges all the more contrasting. This gives the picture a slightly striking character, which is reinforced by the cool colors applied in parallel brushstrokes. This also enhances the red of the hairstyle and lips. In this picture the painter only uses the three basic colors red for lips and hair, blue for the dress and yellow for the bowl with the lion relief.
Well-known versions of the motif
- Oil on wood 60 × 68 cm - Alte Nationalgalerie Berlin
- Mixed media on cardboard 53.5 × 46.5 cm - private collection
- Pastel chalk drawing over pencil sketch on cardboard 30 × 42 cm - private collection
- Copper print on handmade paper 30 × 22 cm - National Library Vienna
- Postcard 14 × 10 cm - National Library Vienna
- Oil on cardboard 77 × 70 cm - unknown
Provenance and exhibition
In 1943 the picture from the Munich art trade was auctioned at the auction house Hans W. Lange, Berlin W9, Bellevuestrasse 7, and came into the possession of the German Reich through the Maria Almas-Dietrich gallery . It was planned to transfer the painting to a planned Führer Museum in Linz . After the Second World War, the Federal Republic of Germany was the legal successor to the owner of the picture. In 1969 it came to West Berlin in the newly completed Neue Nationalgalerie . Today it is shown on Museum Island in the Alte Nationalgalerie.
- Sin and Secession. Franz von Stuck in Vienna. From July 1, 2016 to October 9, 2016 Lower Belvedere Vienna.
literature
- Eva A Mendgen: Franz von Stuck, 1863–1928. "A prince in the realm of art". Benedikt Taschen Verlag, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-8228-8953-9 , p. 63.
- Hannah Ripperger: V.1.4 Franz von Stuck, Tilla Durieux as Circe, 1912. In: Portraits of Tilla Durieux. Visual staging of a theater star. Göttingen 2016, ISBN 978-3-8471-0634-0 , p. 124 ff. ( Books.google.de ).
Web links
- Study for Tilla Durieux as Circe Photography
Individual evidence
- ↑ Gender struggle in Frankfurt. Femme fatale, whore and saint. ( Memento of the original from July 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. art-magazin.de.
- ^ Franz von Stuck, Tilla Durieux as Circe, around 1913. belvedere.at.
- ↑ Historical picture postcards - 3.1 picture postcards / Tilla Durieux as Circe. bildpostkarten.uni-osnabrueck.de, accessed on November 25, 2017 .
- ^ List from the database of the German Historical Museum
