Meeresritt (Sea ride)

Details

MAX KLINGER (1857-1920)
Meeresritt (Sea ride)
signed, inscribed and dated Max Klinger. / Bruxelles 1879. (lower left, on the artist's mount), and further inscribed Meeres - Ritt (lower centre, on the artist's mount)
pen, brush and India ink and grey wash on paper
39 x 18 cm. (14 3⁄8 x 7 1⁄8 in.)

Provenance

Dr Johannes Mohrmann (d. 1906), Hamburg; his posthumous sale, Amsler & Ruthardt, Berlin, 30 October 1907, lot 119.
Hans Steinwachs (1880-1934); Gutekunst & Klipstein, Bern, 14-15 June 1934, lot 253.
Kornfeld & Klipstein, Bern, 9 June 1976, lot 540.
Acquired at the above sale; then by descent to the present owners.

Literature

S. Kim, Das Ornamentale in Max Klingers Druckgrafik - Unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Antikenrezeption und des Japonismus, Heidelberg, 2007, vol. I, p. 160 (ill. in vol. II, fig. 109).

Exhibited

Possibly New York, Carus Gallery, Graphic Works of Max Klinger, May - June 1977 (catalogue untraced).
Berlin, Galerie Pels-Leusden, Max Klinger, February - May 1978.
Hildesheim, Roemer und Pelizaeus-Museum, Max Klinger - Wege zum Gesamtkunstwerk, August - November 1984, no. 53, pp. 166 (ill.) & 271.
Frankfurt, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Max Klinger 1857-1920, February - June 1992, no. 77, p. 134 (ill.); then Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste; and Wuppertal, von der Heydt-Museum, June - September 1992.
Munich, Museum Villa Stuck, Max Klinger: Zeichnungen, Zustandsdrucke, Zyklen, October 1996 - January 1997, exh. cat., no. 94a, p. 191 (ill.).
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Aus der Werkstatt des Künstlers – Druckgraphik und vorbereitende Zeichnungen der Sammlung Hegewisch, March 1999 - October 2000, pp. 34 (ill.) & 93-4.
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Nackt - Die Ästhetik der Blösse, February - April 2002.

Conditions of sale

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Zack Boutwood Cataloguer

zboutwood@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2025

Lot Essay

This erotic drawing of a couple embracing as they descend to the depths of the sea is a preliminary work for Klinger's print Verführung (Seduction), Plate IV of the artists' series of 14 etchings titled Ein Leben (Opus VIII), published in Berlin in 1884. The series of prints uses Symbolism to explore the social injustices facing women in the late 19th century. It tells the story of a young woman who, abandoned by both her lover and society, turns to a life of sex work. The print is also in the Hegewisch Collection.

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