Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 8

Otto von Faber du Faur
Man sitting in the studio - Thinking about art -

About the Item

Adolph Eduard Otto von Faber du Faur (1828 Ludwigsburg - 1901 Munich). Man sitting in the studio. Watercolour painting, 43 x 27 cm (visible size), 73 x 53 cm (frame), monogrammed at lower right, estate stamp. Upper right corner neatly repaired, small tear in the wall to the left of the sitter. - Thinking about art - About the artwork The sitter, an elderly man, is seated in a studio on a pedestal reminiscent of an academy hall. The earthy, dark tones give the scene a weighty quality. The lightest tones are found in the incarnate parts of the figure, which do not stand out from the other colours of the picture, but are linked to them. As a result, the sitter's face is both part of and the highlight of the colour references in the picture. The colour of the sitter's skin is reflected in his pink coat, while his white-grey hair matches the colour of the wall next to him. This almost monochrome wall surface, in turn, is connected across the portrait to the framed picture standing on the floor, which seems to have been erased by this correspondence with the empty wall surface. Through the palette, which is positioned directly behind the sitter's head, the reference to painting, which is already given by the studio space, is explicitly linked to the sitter, who thus seems to be contemplating the question of the meaning of art. This raises the question of whether Faber Du Faur, who had become lonely in his old age, might have painted a self-portrait here in his later years. In addition to the studio setting, the sitter's explicit reference to the palette and the fact that the picture was part of his estate, the only summary elaboration of the body suggests a self-portrait, while the representation of the face is concretised with the wide-open eyes typical of a self-portrait. This concentration on the face gives the impression of the artist's melancholy introspection, captured by the palette and related to the meaning of painting, whose dark character is reinforced by the concealment of the palette hanging on the right of the picture in the light tones so characteristic of Faber Du Faur. In the course of this resignation, Faber du Faur advises his son Hans, who has also become a painter: "Promise me one thing: never move to Munich, they'll kill you here!" Whoever the sitter may be, the references to painting make the portrait a resigned self-contemplation by Faber Du Faur, focused on art. About the artist After leaving school, Otto Faber du Faur entered the service of the Württemberg army, at the same time cultivating his artistic talent. In 1851, on the recommendation of his father Christian Wilhelm, who was himself a battle painter, he spent six months in Munich as an apprentice to Alexander von Kotzebue. In 1852 he was granted a year's leave of absence from military service to study battle painting in the studio of Adolphe Yvon in Paris, where he received a scholarship from the Württemberg royal family. In Paris, he was inspired by the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix. On further study trips to Paris, Faber Du Faur also became acquainted with the art of Gustave Courbet, Théodore Rousseau and Adolphe Monticelli. In 1867, he resigned from the army to devote himself entirely to art. In 1869 he became a pupil of Karl von Piloty at the Munich Academy, one of the most innovative history painters of his time. In the 1970s, he was commissioned by the royal house of Württemberg to produce several large paintings that established Faber Du Faur's reputation as one of Germany's leading battle painters. The great success of his panorama 'The Siege of Paris', which was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, led to the production of a large number of panoramas, which were gradually painted and exhibited in various large cities. In 1880, Faber Du Faur undertook a study trip to Tunis, followed by a six-month stay in Morocco in 1883, which led to a marked brightening of his palette and a more expressive use of colour. A development that he continued on his travels to Spain, but which made him an outsider who died in obscurity in Munich in 1901. The quality of his art was only rediscovered and appreciated posthumously: four of his works were shown at the Venice Biennale in 1903 and, as a temporary high point, a major monographic exhibition of 160 of his paintings was held at the National Gallery in Berlin in 1927. His correspondence with his painter friend Carl von Häberlin, which gives an insight into his work, is in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart. Selection of public collections that own works by Otto von Faber du Faur: Bayerisches Armeemuseum Ingolstadt, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Triest, Lenbachhaus München, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Neue Pinakothek München, Staatsgalerie Regensburg, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Selected Bibliography Theodor Musper: Schwäbische Lebensbilder, Stuttgart 1941. Peter Wilhelm Pech: Carl von Häberlin, Tübingen 1982. Julius Fekete: Carl von Häberlin und die Stuttgarter Historienmaler seiner Zeit, Sigmaringen 1986. Claus Zoege von Manteuffel (Hg.): Kunst und Künstler in Württemberg, Stuttgart 1996. Gertrud Seizinger: Otto von Faber du Faur. Studien zu den Arbeiten in Öl, Stuttgart 2010. GERMAN VERSION Adolph Eduard Otto von Faber du Faur (1828 Ludwigsburg - 1901 München). Im Atelier sitzender Mann. Aquarell, 43 x 27 cm (Passepartout-Innenmaß), 73 x 53 cm (Rahmen), rechts unten monogrammiert, verso Nachlass-Stempel der Rückseite als Fotografie auf den rückwärtigen Schutzkarton angeheftet. Rechte obere Ecke sachgemäß ergänzt, kleiner Einriss auf der Wandpartie links vom Porträtierten. Exposé als PDF - Über die Kunst sinnierend - zum Werk Der porträtierte ältere Mann sitzt in einem Atelier auf einem an Akademiesäle gemahnenden Sockel. Die erdig-dunkeltonige Farbigkeit verleiht der Szene eine Schwere. Den hellsten Farbwert bildet das Inkarnat, das sich allerdings nicht von der sonstigen Farbigkeit des Bildes abhebt, sondern an diese zurückgebunden ist. Dadurch ist das Antlitz des Porträtierten zugleich Teil wie Höhepunkt der farblichen Bildbezüge. So findet sich die Hautfarbe in abgeschwächter Weise im rosafarbenen Mantelaufschlag wieder während die weißlich grauen Haare tonal mit der Wandfläche neben dem Porträtierten korrespondierenden. Diese nahezu monochrome Wandfläche verbindet sich über den Porträteren hinweg wiederum mit dem auf der Erde stehenden gerahmten Bild, das durch diese Entsprechung mit der leeren Wandfläche wie ausgelöscht wirkt. Anhand der genau hinter dem Kopf des Porträtierten situierten Palette wird der bereits durch den Atelierraum gegebene Bezug zur Malerei ausdrücklich auf den Dargestellten bezogen, der dadurch über die Frage nach dem Sinn der Kunst zu sinnieren scheint. Damit ist die Frage aufgeworfen, ob sich der im Alter vereinsamte Faber Du Faur hier nicht in seinen späten Lebensjahren selbst porträtiert haben könnte. Neben der Ateliersituation, dem ausdrücklichen Bezug des Porträtierten auf die Palette und dem Umstand, dass sich das Bild im Nachlass befunden hat, spricht für ein Selbstporträt auch die einzig summarisch erfolgte Ausarbeitung des Körpers während sich die Darstellung im Gesicht mit den für ein Selbstporträt topischen weit geöffneten Augen konkretisiert. Diese Verdichtung im Gesicht forciert den Eindruck einer von der Palette hinterfangenen, auf den Sinn der Malerei bezogene melancholische Innenschau eines Künstlers, deren dunkler Zug noch durch die Verdeckung der rechts im Bild hängenden Palette mit jenen für Faber Du Faur doch so charakteristischen hellen Tönen verstärkt wird. Im Zuge dieser Resignation rät Faber du Faur seinem Sohn Hans, der ebenfalls Maler geworden ist: „Versprich mir nur eines, zieh nie nach München, sie bringen dich hier um!“ Um wen auch immer es sich bei dem dargestellten Mann tatsächlich handeln mag, anhand der hervorgehobenen Bezüge auf die Malerei ist das Porträt eine auf die Kunst fokussierte resignative Selbstbesinnung Faber Du Faurs. zum Künstler Otto Faber du Faur trat nach der Schule in den Dienst der Württembergischen Armee und kultivierte - parallel dazu - seine künstlerische Begabung. 1851 ging er auf Empfehlung seines Vaters Christian Wilhelm, der seinerseits Schlachtenmaler war, ein halbes Jahr in München bei Alexander von Kotzebue in die Lehre. 1852 wurde er dann ein ganzen Jahr vom Heerdienst beurlaubt, um sich - mit einem Stipendium des Württembergischen Königshauses bedacht - in Paris im Atelier von Adolphe Yvon in der Schlachtenmalerei weiterzubilden. In Paris wurde er durch die Malerei von Théodore Géricault und Eugène Delacroix inspiriert. Auf weiteren Pariser Studienreisen machte sich Faber Du Faur dann auch mit der Kunst Gustave Courbets, Théodore Rousseaus und Adolphe Monticellis vertraut. 1867 nahm er seinen Abschied von der Armee, um sich ganz der Kunst zu widmen. 1869 wurde er an der Münchner Akademie Schüler Karl von Pilotys, einem der innovativsten Historienmaler seiner Zeit. In den siebziger Jahren entstanden im Auftrag des Württembergischen Königshauses mehrere großformatige Gemälde, welche Faber Du Faurs Ruf als bedeutender deutscher Schlachtenmaler begründeten. Der große Erfolg seines während der Pariser Weltausstellung von 1878 gezeigten Panorama "Belagerung von Paris" zog die Anfertigung einer Vielzahl von Panoramen nach sich, die nach und nach in den verschiedensten Großstädten gemalt und gezeigt wurden. 1880 unternahm Faber Du Faur eine Studienreise nach Tunis, um dann, 1883, ein halbes Jahr nach Marokko zu gehen, was zu einer deutlichen Aufhellung seiner Palette und einem expressiveren Farbumgang führte. Eine Entwicklung, die er auf Reisen nach Spanien weiter beförderte, ihn aber zu einem Außenseiter machte, der 1901 unbeachtet in München verstarb. Die Qualität seiner Kunst wurde erst posthum wiederentdeckt und gewürdigt: 1903 wurden vier seiner Werke auf der Biennale in Venedig gezeigt und, als vorläufiger Höhepunkt, fand 1927 in der Nationalgalerie Berlin eine große monografische Ausstellung statt, auf der 160 seiner Gemälde zu sehen waren. Der einen Einblick in sein Schaffen gewährende Briefwechsel mit seinem Malerfreund Carl von Häberlin liegt in der Württembergischen Landesbibliothek Stuttgart. Auswahl öffentlicher Sammlungen, die Werke von Otto von Faber du Faur besitzen: Bayerisches Armeemuseum Ingolstadt, Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Galleria d’Arte Moderna Triest, Lenbachhaus München, Nationalgalerie Berlin, Neue Pinakothek München, Staatsgalerie Regensburg, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Auswahlbibliographie Theodor Musper: Schwäbische Lebensbilder, Stuttgart 1941. Peter Wilhelm Pech: Carl von Häberlin, Tübingen 1982. Julius Fekete: Carl von Häberlin und die Stuttgarter Historienmaler seiner Zeit, Sigmaringen 1986. Claus Zoege von Manteuffel (Hg.): Kunst und Künstler in Württemberg, Stuttgart 1996. Gertrud Seizinger: Otto von Faber du Faur. Studien zu den Arbeiten in Öl, Stuttgart 2010.
  • Creator:
    Otto von Faber du Faur (1828 - 1901, German)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 16.93 in (43 cm)Width: 10.63 in (27 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Berlin, DE
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU2438212325942
More From This SellerView All
  • Self-portrait - Homo nudus -
    Located in Berlin, DE
    Bruno Paul (1874 Seifhennersdorf - 1968 Berlin). Self-portrait, c. 1895. Pencil on paper, mounted on cardboard, 53.5 x 35 cm, signed 'Paul' at upper left. - Homo nudus - About the artwork In a mirrored situation, Bruno Paul looks at himself in the picture. While his body, which is the size of the format, is shown in profile parallel to the picture, he turns his head into the picture in order to become aware of himself there, whereby the lighter use...
    Category

    1890s Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Pencil

  • Sketch of a head - Carved in stone -
    Located in Berlin, DE
    Emil Faesch (1865 Basel - 1915 Basel). Sketch of a head. Charcoal on painting cardboard, 60 x 47.5 cm (folio size), signed and dated at lower right "E. Faesch. 1888.". Minor browning. - Carved in stone - About the artwork The life-size head has an immensely present presence. This effect is due to the fact that Faesch took his cue from academic classical...
    Category

    1880s Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Chalk

  • Half-length portrait of a Pharisee - In the shadow of betrayal -
    Located in Berlin, DE
    Hermann Prell (1854 Leipzig - 1922 Dresden-Loschwitz). Half-length portrait of a Pharisee, 1885. Sketch for the right-hand figure in the painting Judas Iscariot, 1886. Pencil drawing heightened with opaque white and black chalk on beige-grey wove paper (papier vélin), 34 x 27.8 cm (visible size), 52 x 45 cm (mount), signed, dated and inscribed "H. PRELL 1885 zu 'Judas'". Minor browning, collection stamp on the reverse. - In the shadow of betrayal - About the artwork This painting is the sketch for the head of the Pharisee offering the coins to Judas in one of Herrmann Prell's major works, the painting Betrayal of Judas, completed in 1886. The painting belongs to the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and is illustrated in Adolf Rosenberg: Prell, Bielefeld and Leipzig 1901, p. 21 (Fig. 19). It is especially highlighted in Thieme-Becker (vol. 27, p. 376). Hermann Prell, Betrayal of Judas, 1886 The monumental head, which fills the picture and is distinguished by its ornamented robe, is almost a lost profile, which in the executed painting is justified by the Pharisee's turning towards Judas. Despite the fact that the sitter withdraws from the viewer by turning away, it was necessary to artistically elaborate the motivation for the purchase of one of Christ's disciples, which is why the drawing focuses on the expression of the face, while the 'accessories' are treated in a more summary manner. In characterising the face, Hermann Prell performs a balancing act: since the Pharisee, despite his destructive actions, is an actor in the history of salvation, the head must show a dignity appropriate to the event, but at the same time the physiognomy must also bear witness to the scheming attitude that led to the betrayal. To solve this dilemma, Prell draws on the traditional depictions of the heads of the apostles, shading the face to indicate the obdurate darkness of the spirit and moving the base of the nose slightly upwards while the mouth falls away, thus giving a physiognomic expression to the motivation of the action. The fatal drama of the betrayal is expressed in the monumentalisation of the head and in the thunderous white highlights that contrast with the darkness of the chalk. As a study, considered by the artist to be a work in itself, this drawing reveals the pictorial problems and brainstorming of monumental painting. About the artist In 1872 Prell, who was one of the most important exponents of monumental painting of his time, began studying painting with Theodor Grosse at the Dresden Academy of Art and continued with Carl Gussow at the Berlin Academy in 1876. Hans von Marées taught him in Rome in 1878. More influential on his work, however, were Arnold Böcklin and Max Klinger, with whom Prell had been friends since his student days and with whom he worked together on several occasions. Prell's first major work, which established his reputation as a monumental painter, were the frescoes in the banqueting hall of the Architektenhaus in Berlin in 1881/82, commissioned by the state and depicting the different periods of architecture. Prell then went to Italy for two years to study fresco painting. Other major commissions followed. These included monumental frescoes in the town halls of Worms (1884), Hildesheim (1882-92), Gdansk (1895) and Dresden, the staircase of the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau (1893/94), the throne room of the German Embassy in Rome (1896-99) and the staircase of the Albertinum in Dresden (1900-1904). From 1886 Prell taught at the academy of arts in Berlin and in 1892 he was appointed professor at the academy of arts in Dresden. His students included Osmar Schindler and Hans Unger...
    Category

    1880s Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Chalk

  • Red blooming war landscape with dead soldier - Bleeding flowers -
    Located in Berlin, DE
    Johannes Friedrich Heinrich Hänsch (1875-1945), Red blooming war landscape with dead soldier, 1918. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 15 x 24.5 cm (image), 27 x 37 cm (sheet size / frame), monogrammed and dated "19JH18" at lower left. - Paper slightly darkened About the artwork Despite the relatively small format, the watercolor with an internal frame depicts a panoramic view of a flat landscape stretching to the horizon. As far as the eye can see, the poppies bloom in flaming red. The flowers are not rendered individually, however, creating an almost cohesive red surface. The bright red is interspersed with vegetal green. A complementary contrast that creates an intense color effect. In this color contrast, a white area breaks through from the middle ground, widening towards the foreground and surrounding a brown hole. Next to it, in blue, is the actual protagonist of the painting, the first thing that catches the eye: a dead soldier. Next to him is his helmet, revealing the empty interior. The brown, hollow shape corresponds to the hole in the ground. A shell funnel is surrounded by bright ash, which, like the inverted helmet, becomes a sign of death. The soldier's arms point to the funnel, while the empty helmet paraphrases the calotte of the skull and, like the funnel, thematizes the empty darkness of death. The soldier's body, however, is intact and not - as in Otto Dix's triptych "The War" - a dismembered corpse. Instead, Johannes Hänsch activates the landscape, especially the color, to illustrate a blooming landscape of death that extends from the shell funnel in the foreground to the rising column of smoke on the horizon. If the soldier's body is intact, the tangle of barbed wire emblematically placed over the empty helmet also appears tattered. On the right side of the picture, the barbed wire even seems to stretch its arms to the sky in horror. Against the background of this allegory, the content of the bright red also becomes clear: the landscape is drenched in blood, literally a sea of blood, and the single unknown soldier stands pars pro toto for all those who died on the battlefield. Dying in war is not dying in community, but in solitude. In order to emphasize the isolation in death, Johannes Hänsch has set the blue of the soldier in the axis given by his body in the middle ground of the picture into the red sea. A master of landscape painting, Hänsch succeeds in creating a natural-looking landscape allegory that illustrates the horror and death of war, without depicting the brutality of war itself. This singular 'war memorial' of the unknown soldier is the opposite of heroization and yet the dignity of the deceased soldier is preserved through the integrity of his body. About the artist As the son of the sculptor Adolf Haensch, the young Johannes received his first artistic training in his father's Berlin studio. However, he eventually decided to become a painter, and in 1897 he entered the Berlin Academy of Arts. He initially studied under Paul Vorgang and Eugen Bracht, and was particularly influenced by Bracht's increasingly colourful landscape painting. In 1901 he moved to the class of Friedrich Kallmorgen, with whom he spent several weeks on excursions into nature. In 1905 he became a master pupil of Albert Hertel, who taught him watercolour painting. From 1903 to 1933 he exhibited annually at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, the exhibitions of the Berlin Artists' Association and the Munich Glaspalast. In 1905 he was awarded the Carl Blechen...
    Category

    1910s Realist Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • High Moorland Landscape in the fog - The world as a transcendent phenomenon -
    Located in Berlin, DE
    Charles Edward Brittan Jr (1870 Plymouth - 1949). High moor landscape in the fog. Gouache, signed at lower left "Charles E. Brittan", 18 x 34.5 cm (passepartout), 45 x 62 cm (frame)....
    Category

    Early 20th Century Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • Shady hollow way - Into the heart of the forest -
    By Hans Dvoràk
    Located in Berlin, DE
    Hans Dvořák (19th century). Shady hollow way in a sunny forest. Watercolour and pen-and-ink drawing, 58.5 x 43 cm (visible size), 70 x 55.5 cm (frame), signed and dated "Hans Dvořák ...
    Category

    1880s Realist Landscape Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

You May Also Like
  • Companions
    By Walter Langley
    Located in Belgravia, London, London
    Watercolour on paper Paper size: 10 x 13.75 inches Framed size: 18.75 x 21.5 inches Signed lower left
    Category

    19th Century Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor

  • Mon dieu, gardez-moi mon enfant - Watercolor by Paul Delhommeau - 1868
    Located in Roma, IT
    Mon dieu, gardez-moi mon enfant is an original artwork realized by Paul Delhommeau, in 1868. Watercolor drawing on brown cardboard glued on on a white paper ...
    Category

    1860s Interior Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • William F. Buckley and Pat Buckley at home in NY. From the Interiors series
    By Manuel Santelices
    Located in Miami Beach, FL
    William F. Buckley and Pat Buckley at home in NY, 2014 by Manuel Santelices From the Interiors series Unframed A new series inspired by architecture, décor and stylish personalities...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Interior Drawings and Waterco...

    Materials

    Paper, Ink, Watercolor

  • 'Out of Hokkaido', Carmel Art Association Exhibit, Japanese portrait, Kimono
    Located in Santa Cruz, CA
    By Virginia Conroy Dedini (American, 1922-2006). Titled lower left, 'Mitsuko ''Okaido Born''' and dated August 1976. Exhibited: Carmel Art Associati...
    Category

    1970s Post-Impressionist Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Watercolor, Gouache, Graphite

  • Portrait of a Boy - British Art Deco interior painting seated male female artist
    By Anna Airy
    Located in London, GB
    This large stunning watercolour portrait was painted circa 1930 by noted British female artist Anna Airy. The portrait depicts a full length boy seated in a beautiful Art Deco interi...
    Category

    1930s Art Deco Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor

  • SEDUCTRESS Signed Watercolor, Erotic Fashion Portrait, Modern Boudoir Art
    By Nico Vrielink
    Located in Union City, NJ
    SEDUCTRESS is a unique original mixed media watercolor and graphite on paper, hand drawn and painted by the Dutch artist Nico Vrielink. SEDUCTRESS portrays a dark haired young woman wearing an off-shoulder evening gown and long elegant evening gloves looking sideways over her shoulder, seductively posing on a modern settee, her warm coral pink lipstick, rose lavender eye shadow and warm rose blushed cheeks enhancing her passionate mood. SEDUCTRESS is an erotic fashion portrait of expressive, modern boudoir art...
    Category

    1980s Contemporary Portrait Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Watercolor, Graphite, Paper, Mixed Media

Recently Viewed

View All