Arnold Böcklin Swiss, 1827-1901

Franz von Stuck, Fernand Khnopff, Max Klinger and Arnold Böcklin were all primarily painters who all responded to sculpture and created some of the most intense objects of the Symbolist movement.  Some of these works are created in a conventional sculptural format, such as Stuck’s bronzes The Athlete, Amazon or The Dancer (see lot 242). Others use unusual materials in unusual combinations to create truly unique objects, such as the silver and marble group of Galatea by Max Klinger, sold in these rooms 11 July 2001 for £245,500. The works of Böcklin and Khnopff share an essentially painterly response to sculpture in which the use of colour, often applied traditionally with the brush to three dimensional models is the preferred medium.  In the case of the present Medusa Shield Böcklin has collaborated with his pupil and son-in-law Peter Bruckmann. Blühm has stated that Bruckmann modelled the shield and Böcklin added the colour. The present example was shown in the pioneering exhibition The Colour of Sculpture in 1996.