Franz von Stuck II

Today will be the second full series I have done on the work of Franz von Stuck (1863-1926), a German artist who was quite versatile in terms of media and style.  He is best known for paintings and drawings, but he also was a very good sculptor, furniture designer, and poster artist.  He also did book illustrations and a line of greeting cards.  His home, Villa von Stuck, was furnished from top to bottom with items he designed ranging from place mats to tapestries to curtains and carpets.  He was also not above getting naked and having some fun, as shown above.  You have to love this guy.

 

Adam and Eve, Two Takes

Snakes entwined with women (and sometimes men) are a recurrent theme in Franz von Stuck's work.  Obviously, he wasn't about to let the Adam and Eve biblical fairy tale pass him by.  Above, we have his 1920 painted version, and below, an 1893 relief sculpture.  Eve is pretty much the same in both,

but we get two very different versions of Adam.

 

Aktaeon

1926 was the date for Aktaeon, Man with Spear.

 

Athlete . . . or Atlas?

On the relatively rare occasions when von Stuck sculpted, he was very good at it.  This post includes three views of The Athlete, which some observers have described as a different take on Atlas.

We start with a very well formed derriere view.

This version of a frontal view is OK, but the one below is better.

 

Spring Procession?

This is clearly labeled Spring Procession in a book of Franz von Stuck's work, but I can't find a painting by that name (in either English or German) anywhere.  The only thing even close was a work called Bacchanalian Procession, and it does not have a male even vaguely resembling this.  

Having said all that, I find it to be a perfectly fine stand alone work of art.

 

Orpheus

This is Orpheus from 1891, and it made Franz von Stuck prominent in the Art Nouveau movement.

 

Study - Struggle for Women

After having previously posted the painting The Struggle for Women, I found this study for it.

I have to say I like it much better than the finished work shown again below.

 

Prometheus

Franz von Stuck painted Prometheus in 1926, and it reminds me in some ways of the work of Sasha Schneider.  Von Stuck seems to have greatly perferred Classical over Biblical themes in his work.

 

Study for Bacchanal

This 1903 drawing was a study for the painting Bacchanal.

 

Not academic

While this looks like typical 19th C. academic work, it is part of a collection of 20th C. studies that Franz von Stuck did for paintings.  Many of those only vaguely resemble the finished works, and the curators of the website where I found this charcoal drawing did not reference a painting.

 

Sisyphus

This is the unnamed model for Franz von Stuck's Sisyphus, shown below:

 

Franz von Stuck

And finally, as promised, we have a phot of the models for Franz von Stuck's 

"The Struggle for Woman."  We can't see much, but there they are.

 

Franz Ritter von Stuck

Franz Stuck (1863-1928) became Franz Ritter von Stuck when he was knighted in 1906 

for his contributions to the Bavarian art scene.  He had a very prolific and successful career, 

and was said to have been Adolf Hitler's favorite painter.  We don't really know what von 

Stuck's attitude was toward the Nazis because he died five years before they took power.  

The self portrait above is one of several he did, and like most of them, it is in profile.

 

The Struggle for Woman

Franz von Stuck did two rather different versions of this painting called "The Struggle for Woman."  I have a photograph of the models for this version, and I will post it in a coming series.  If you look closely, you might notice that the grappler at left looks a bit excited in the groin area.  I don't know if that's out of anticipation for the female or because he like close contact with his adversary.

 

Study

This study from about 1910 is just superb, imo.  I find it interesting that von Stuck 

used his squared off signature logo even on minor works such as this.

 

Villa von Stuck

Von Stuck and his American wife built a large home in Munich called Villa von Stuck.  The artist went to great lengths to design virtually everything in and on the place, from the bas relief shown above to the drapes, furniture, and carpets.  It is now a museum open to the public.

 

Pluto

Von Stuck's penchant for Classical themes fell out of favor in the German art world after 

the horrors of World War I, but his work did enjoy a renewed interest from the 1960s onward.

  In the rare event one of his original works goes on sale today, they tend to fetch large sums.  

This is Pluto, and it reminds me of some trashy neighbors down the road and their pit bulls.  

The whole group always looks unhappy, something rather unusual here in Hawaii.

 

Don't shoot!

This is one of several drawings in my von Stuck collection where the model's body is quite 

well represented, but the face is either incomplete or very crudely depicted.

In this case, we have a study for an unknown work.

 

Surrounded by Enemies I

This 1914 work is a pen drawing on paper, and the title, which translates as Surrounded by Enemies, is a direct appropriation of a war propaganda slogan attributed to Kaiser Wilhelm at the onset of World War I.  When it became apparent that Germany was losing the war, von Stuck tried to retitle it Siegfried, but that didn't stick.  Von Stuck was also a talented sculptor, and he did a statuette version of this piece which follows in today's set.  We might wish he did more sculptures.

 

Surrounded by Enemies II

This is the sculptural version of Surrounded by Enemies,

and I like it rather more than the painting.