Lot Essay
Alexander Rothaug was active as a painter, stage designer and illustrator in Munich and his native Vienna in the waning years of the 19th century and into the first half of the 20th. Trained at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts by the Orientalist painter Leopold Carl Müller (1834-1892), Rothaug would go on to create his own distinctive style which defies easy classification. With an enduring interest in depicting ancient mythology and Germanic and Norse heroes, Rothaug’s work blends the Classicism he had been taught at the Academy with elements of Jugendstil and also the arresting, atmospheric Symbolism of Franz von Stuck (1863-1928), under whose sway the artist fell during his time in Munich.