Lot Essay
Eingang in den Zoologischen Garten was begun in the summer of 1901, shortly before Slevogt moved to Berlin. It belongs to a series of paintings depicting scenes from the local zoo which reveal the artist's fascination with animals, including Skizze Orang Utan I, 1901, now in the Saarland Museum, Saarbrücken, and Papageienmann, 1901, housed in the Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, Hannover (see Fig. 1). The 'parrot man' was a regular sight in the parks and zoos of Germany in the 1900s, who delighted children with the antics of his colourful birds.
The treatment of colour and the evocation of light in the present work reveal the influence of French impressionism on Slevogt as well as the influence of Manet, for whom he had profound admiration. At the same time as Slevogt was producing his park and zoo scenes, Max Liebermann, who, with Slevogt and Lovis Corinth made up the "German Impressionists", became absorbed with the same subject. Amongst Liebermann's most celebrated pictures in this genre is his Papageienmann im Amsterdamer Zoo, 1902, now in the Kunsthalle, Bremen (see Fig. 2).
As is explained by Slevogt in a letter to his wife of 1901, Eingang in den Zoologischen Garten was painted as a souvenir of the artist's happy stay in Frankfurt (see H-J. Imiela, op. cit., p. 364). In 1911, Slevogt added his nanny and children, Nina and Wolfgang, to the composition, before presenting the work to his mother.
The treatment of colour and the evocation of light in the present work reveal the influence of French impressionism on Slevogt as well as the influence of Manet, for whom he had profound admiration. At the same time as Slevogt was producing his park and zoo scenes, Max Liebermann, who, with Slevogt and Lovis Corinth made up the "German Impressionists", became absorbed with the same subject. Amongst Liebermann's most celebrated pictures in this genre is his Papageienmann im Amsterdamer Zoo, 1902, now in the Kunsthalle, Bremen (see Fig. 2).
As is explained by Slevogt in a letter to his wife of 1901, Eingang in den Zoologischen Garten was painted as a souvenir of the artist's happy stay in Frankfurt (see H-J. Imiela, op. cit., p. 364). In 1911, Slevogt added his nanny and children, Nina and Wolfgang, to the composition, before presenting the work to his mother.