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Lot Essay
Eugene von Blaas was born into a family of accomplished artists. His father, Karl, was a renowned portrait, history and fresco painter as well as a sculptor, and a professor at the Venice Academy of Fine Art. Eugene's brother, Julius, also an artist, specialized in military scenes and became a professor at the Accademia in Rome. The family had its roots in the Tyrol region of Austria just north of Italy, but both Eugene and his brother were born in Rome and the family later moved to Venice when Karl was hired at the Academy. Eugene received his early artistic education in Rome and he too became a professor at the Accademia. During his lifetime, his paintings were well-received internationally and he exhibited regularly across Europe.
Von Blaas is best known and most loved for his images of Venetian women. His women are striking in their youth and unadorned beauty and they are depicted with a high degree of finish which demonstrates the artist's unique abilities as both draftsman and painter. The realism in the work of von Blaas is almost photographic and it is clearly the artist's intent to show these women going about their daily routines oblivious of their own beauty and that of their surroundings. The artist’s paintings also reflect the tenderness and affinity he felt for the ordinary people of the city who inspired his work. In this, Venice was the ideal setting; due to its wealth in architectural and artistic inheritance together with an inability to expand, the city remained relatively unaffected by the fast-paced changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution during the artist’s lifetime. This time capsule allowed von Blaas to paint idyllic scenes without being consumed by a sense of melancholic nostalgia.
Like many of the artist's genre scenes, Der Blumenverkäufer (the flower seller) creates a sense of an ongoing narrative. Three young women seated on a terrace have been interrupted at their work – their sewing set aside – by a young man selling flowers. Through the use of the distinctly Venetian skyline and beautiful flowering trees behind the figures, as well as their detailed, beautifully colored costumes, von Blaas is able to create a rich contextual setting for the viewer. Yet while these details, coupled with the artist's tight figural composition, set the scene, it is the postures, gestures, facial expressions and the delicate emotive language which fully animate the world that von Blaas has created. The flower salesman leans in flirtatiously toward one woman, her hand on her chin while she considers his offerings, while her friend watches on with interest, a hint of wistfulness on her face. A third, her beautiful ruffled pink blouse echoing the pinks of the flower that surround her, crouches down to examine the pansies, cosmos and geraniums the man has brought with him, a few of their stray petals scattered before her on the ground. One can almost hear the conversation being carried on as the group goes about their day untroubled by the viewer’s presence, and this vibrant depiction allows the viewer to formulate and project their own narrative onto this simple exchange frozen in time.
The present work has not appeared on the market since the year in which it was painted. It was purchased directly from Galerie Heinemann, Munich in June of 1910 by George Washington Watts, a businessman, financier and philanthropist from North Carolina. Alongside James B. Duke, he co-founded the American Tobacco Company, and also founded Watts Hospital, which was the first hospital in Durham, North Carolina. The hospital’s quality of care and philanthropic mission to provide healthcare to the working poor was so well-regarded that James B. Duke and North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison proposed the creation of the state's first four-year medical college, Duke University, with the goal of educating students in conjunction with the services provided at Watts Hospital. It was gifted to Watts’s daughter Annie Louise Watts and her husband and has remained in the family since.
Von Blaas is best known and most loved for his images of Venetian women. His women are striking in their youth and unadorned beauty and they are depicted with a high degree of finish which demonstrates the artist's unique abilities as both draftsman and painter. The realism in the work of von Blaas is almost photographic and it is clearly the artist's intent to show these women going about their daily routines oblivious of their own beauty and that of their surroundings. The artist’s paintings also reflect the tenderness and affinity he felt for the ordinary people of the city who inspired his work. In this, Venice was the ideal setting; due to its wealth in architectural and artistic inheritance together with an inability to expand, the city remained relatively unaffected by the fast-paced changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution during the artist’s lifetime. This time capsule allowed von Blaas to paint idyllic scenes without being consumed by a sense of melancholic nostalgia.
Like many of the artist's genre scenes, Der Blumenverkäufer (the flower seller) creates a sense of an ongoing narrative. Three young women seated on a terrace have been interrupted at their work – their sewing set aside – by a young man selling flowers. Through the use of the distinctly Venetian skyline and beautiful flowering trees behind the figures, as well as their detailed, beautifully colored costumes, von Blaas is able to create a rich contextual setting for the viewer. Yet while these details, coupled with the artist's tight figural composition, set the scene, it is the postures, gestures, facial expressions and the delicate emotive language which fully animate the world that von Blaas has created. The flower salesman leans in flirtatiously toward one woman, her hand on her chin while she considers his offerings, while her friend watches on with interest, a hint of wistfulness on her face. A third, her beautiful ruffled pink blouse echoing the pinks of the flower that surround her, crouches down to examine the pansies, cosmos and geraniums the man has brought with him, a few of their stray petals scattered before her on the ground. One can almost hear the conversation being carried on as the group goes about their day untroubled by the viewer’s presence, and this vibrant depiction allows the viewer to formulate and project their own narrative onto this simple exchange frozen in time.
The present work has not appeared on the market since the year in which it was painted. It was purchased directly from Galerie Heinemann, Munich in June of 1910 by George Washington Watts, a businessman, financier and philanthropist from North Carolina. Alongside James B. Duke, he co-founded the American Tobacco Company, and also founded Watts Hospital, which was the first hospital in Durham, North Carolina. The hospital’s quality of care and philanthropic mission to provide healthcare to the working poor was so well-regarded that James B. Duke and North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison proposed the creation of the state's first four-year medical college, Duke University, with the goal of educating students in conjunction with the services provided at Watts Hospital. It was gifted to Watts’s daughter Annie Louise Watts and her husband and has remained in the family since.