THE PROPERTY OF DR. AND MRS HENRY TRUBNER
Wilhelm Trübner (1851-1917)

Selbstbildnis als Dragoner mit Palette

Details
Wilhelm Trübner (1851-1917)
Selbstbildnis als Dragoner mit Palette
signed and dated 'W. Trübner. 1875/Karlsruhe.' (lower right) and signed and inscribed 'W. Trübner München' on the stretcher
oil on canvas
21¼ x 17½ in. (54 x 44.5 cm.)
Literature
G. Fuchs, Wilhelm Trübner und sein Werk, Munich and Leipzig, 1908, no. 50 (illustrated).
J. A. Beringer, Trübner. Des Meisters Gemälde in 450 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Berlin, 1917, p. 67 (illustrated).
J. A. Beringer, Trübner Eine Answahl aus dem Lebenswerk des Meisters in 101 Abbildungen, Stuttgart and Berlin, 1922, p. 27 (illustrated).
K. Rohrandt, Wilhelm Trübner (1851-1917). Kritischer und beschreibender Katalog Sämtlicher Gemälde, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik, Kiel, 1972, no. 212.
F. von Boetticher, Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, Hofheim am Taunus, 1974, vol. II, ii, p. 902, no. 21.
Exhibited
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Wilhelm Trübner (1851-1917), 10 March-21 May 1995, no. 28.

Lot Essay

The present work, and following eight lots, span the artist's entire career and illustrate the breadth of his creative output. The strengths of his early work can be found in his portraits which are imbued with great theatricality while his mature works are bold exercises in colour and form. Trübner was one of the principal proponents behind a movement which followed in Gustave Courbet's footsteps by breaking with academic tradition and creating with, Wilhelm Leibl, amongst others, an avant-garde following which came to be known as 'reinen Malerei'.

U. Thieme and F. Becker lauded Trübner's importance to Germany's artistic development; 'Trübner must be considered one of the masters of German art, since in the history of the arts there has rarely been an example such as this; that an artist should have created 50 works before his 25th year which belong for all times to the foremost creations of a definitively historical and revolutionary epoch in German art.' (U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allegemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig, 1939, vol. XXXIII, p. 448.)

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