Around 1900, he was a superstar: the painter, graphic artist and architect Franz von Stuck. Like no other, he defined art at the turn of the century in Germany and far beyond. And even more than 100 years later, his multifaceted artwork still exerts an almost disquieting fascination. Why is that? We introduce the artist and seven exemplary works.
Franz von Stuck: It is especially his architectural legacy that is familiar to most culturally interested Munich residents and visitors – Villa Stuck (art gallery) in Bogenhausen district, one of the city's most beautiful architectural monuments and one of the most internationally renowned artists' houses. While the exterior adheres strictly to neoclassical style, the interior is distinguished by Stuck's extraordinary spatial art in gold mosaics and wall paintings, with an artist's garden in Pompeian style at the back of the house.
Today, Villa Stuck enjoys an international reputation as a venue for exhibitions spanning from the 19th to the 21st century, and occasionally, it hosts lively summer festivals. The right wing of the villa houses the works by the man who built the artists' house in 1897/98 according to his own designs; the new studio on the left was added in 1914/15. Even today, it quickly becomes clear that he must have been a superstar, an artist who achieved brilliant artistic success, fame and thus wealth already during his lifetime.
Margot Th. Brandlhuber, Head of Collections at Villa Stuck, knows the artist's life and work like no other. She explains: “His great career was not laid in his cradle. He was born in the Bavarian outskirts, far away from the influential circles of the world.“ Stuck (the “von“ was only added to his name in 1906) had modest beginnings in the Lower Bavarian town of Tettenweis near Passau – as the son of a miller. However, his talent with pen and brush was soon recognised. Stuck attended the School of Applied Arts and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Munich and within a few years made a name for himself as a graphic artist, designer and cartoonist.
Brandlhuber: “His big breakthrough as an artist came in the 1890s. With Stuck, Munich became a global hub for art – also through the first Secession, which he co-founded in 1892. Shortly before 1900, this hub literally exploded with ideas for the design of early modernism, from fine and applied arts to architecture. When Stuck exhibited in Vienna in 1893, the young writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal stated that one could hardly bear the unsettlingly new and radical nature of Struck's art. It influenced the Viennese art scene, especially Gustav Klimt, and still aroused the admiration of the 17-year-old Egon Schiele in 1908.“ Even a century later, Stuck's artworks speak directly to the viewer. Margot Brandlhuber sums up this fascination: “Stuck always goes the whole hog. He doesn't spare his audience, but delves for themes that are not only vast, but almost archetypal, so that they relate to every viewer.“
The Guardian of Paradise, 1889
This painting was Stuck's ticket to the artistic avant-garde of his era. Created for an exhibition in the Glaspalast (glass palace), which burned down in 1931, it earned Stuck a second-class gold medal. Brandlhuber explains: “It depicts a radical reinterpretation of the timeless theme of the expulsion from paradise. The archangel who prevents Adam and Eve from returning to paradise is not portrayed here in brazen armour in front of a picturesque paradise backdrop, but as an androgynous youth draped in a sheer robe, resembling the young artist himself. Paradise is presented almost abstractly, glistening brightly. The Garden of Eden alternates between hues of yellow, pink, ochre and blue, shaping into stars, swooping sparks and rosettes.“ This meaning-laden art spoke to viewers after decades of formulated Academic painting. A Belgian collector paid Stuck 60,000 gold marks for the painting – laying the financial bedrock for his career and the construction of his artist's villa.“
Link to the painting:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/derwaechterdesparadieses-40000002
Orpheus and the Animals, 1891
Stuck's Orpheus also enthused the audience. “The very attractive male nude in a quarter profile exuded an erotic energy and is at the same time reminiscent of Stuck's self-portrayal as a youthful Roman from the early days of his career. The mythological theme of Orpheus, whose enchanting song moved animals, plants, and even stones to tears with its beauty, resonated the high regard at the time for the power of music and its direct effect on the human soul. Stuck's penchant for abstraction becomes evident in the fact that he chose the long-outdated gold ground technique, instead of the conventional figurative background”, says Margot Brandlhuber. “His training as a graphic designer shines through – the inscription Orpheus in the picture looks like a brand name, and his distinctive typography has a great recognition effect.“
Link to the painting:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/orpheusunddietiere-40000035
The Sin, before 1906 (first version 1893)
“The Sin” is Stuck's most famous motif. 13 versions of it are still internationally known today, gracing the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Galleria d'Arte Moderna in Palermo and the Frye Art Museum in Seattle. When Stuck unveiled this motif for the very first time during the inaugural exhibition of the Munich Secession in 1893, it left the public spellbound. Everyone passed judgement on the reinterpretation of a biblical sin, torn between voyeurism and timidity. For Margot Brandlhuber, the motif of the femme fatale is still fascinating today. “The Sin is one of the great pictorial inventions of its time; anyone who has seen it once - especially the version that adorns the Altar of Sin in Villa Stuck – will never forget it. An ancient temple architecture forms the frame on which the title of the painting is engraved in Stuck's typography. The artist thus creates a scenery-like sphere of the sacred. What a staging! The woman as she is shown here is not a victim. In his work, women are often portrayed – and The Sin is an example of this – as self-confident and clever, occasionally also as dangerous and potentially lethal to men. It was not until the feminist movement that this historical myth was turned around in art and recast.“
Link to the painting:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/diesuende-40000009
Self-Portrait, 1899
Franz von Stuck frequently portrayed himself from his early days as a painter; as here at the age of 35, after he had achieved everything. Margot Brandlhuber elucidates: “He was the youngest professor ever at the Munich Academy and had just completed his unique artist's villa, designed entirely according to his own vision. In this painting, he presents himself with a compelling, self-confident demeanour.“ Another striking aspect in this work is that Stuck designed frames for many of his paintings, which he commissioned from several workshops and which form an integral part of the artistry. Margot Brandlhuber informs us: “Many of the frames that adorn Stuck's paintings are extraordinarily intricate in their crafting: He didn't see himself solely in the role of a painter, but always also embraced an architectural mindset. The frames secure the effect of his paintings, regardless of the time and place. In this way, he was able to help shape the context.”
Link to the painting:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/selbstbildnis-40000007
Dissonance, 1910
Margot Brandlhuber: “This motif is the best-selling card in our museum shop, captivating young and old alike. A mismatched couple seated on a boulder against a vast blue sky – a buck-legged faun and a red-haired child with buck horns on the forehead. The child's mouth dances on the reed of a panpipe, producing such discordant sounds that the faun turns away in agitation and covers his ears in pain. In a nude photograph taken by Stuck's wife Mary in their shared studio at the villa, the artist himself posed as a model for the bucolically humorous subject. The inspiration behind Stuck's witty pictorial idea may have been the contemporary discussion of consonance and dissonance in the emerging atonal music, the first works of which were composed around 1908/09 and performed in Munich.“
Link to the painting:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/dissonanz-40000012
Daughter Mary as Greek, 1916
“Franz von Stuck shared a remarkably close bond with his daughter Mary,“ Margot Brandlhuber tells us. “Mary was the person he portrayed most frequently, affording her the privilege of spending extensive time in his studio as a child model, although this was probably exhausting for her at times. Stuck's wife, also named Mary, was not her mother: Daughter Mary was born from one of Stuck's previous relationships, before his marriage. The artist's daughter was one of the popular subjects and the depictions of her as a child could be described as the artist's involuntary bestsellers. In the present work, Mary is shown dressed as a young Greek woman, with both her figure and the background shining in splendid colours! As highly ornate as Stuck's portraits are, he also took a contemporary approach to their production. Most of the portraits are based on photographs taken by Mary and Franz in a state-of-the-art photographic studio of that era.“
Link to the painting:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/tochtermaryalsgriechin-40000037
Faun and Mermaid, 1893
This small half-relief adorns the famous artist's altar that Stuck built in the studio of his villa. The altar is the backdrop of one of the famous “The Sin” paintings. Margot Brandlhuber explains: “He did not want to create an isolated work, but a complete ensemble in which various art forms, themes and elements from nature combine to form a magnificent whole – an all-encompassing masterpiece. The paradisiacal lightness emanating from the two figures is in tension with the drama of “The Sin” that looms above the two nautilus shells. The exuberant eroticism of the scene between the faun and the mermaid is combined with sensual musical enjoyment. The mismatched pair symbolises a life of freedom in an archaic state of nature beyond civilisation – an existence that has been lost to humanity.“
Link to the relief:
https://www.villastuck.de/sammlung-online/detail/faunundnixerelief-40000340
