Edward Cucuel

Galerie del Vecchio, Leipzig
Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner in the 1920s; thence by descent

Original canvas. There are no signs of retouching visible under ultraviolet light, and the work is in very good original condition, though it could benefit from a light surface clean. Held in a decorative, gilt moulded plaster and wood frame.
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Cucuel was born in San Francisco, where he studied at the San Francisco School of Design. He continued his training in Paris in the 1890s, at the Académie Colorossi and at the Académie Julian, and finally at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. It was in Paris that he developed a successful career as a freelance illustrator for several European journals, including Le Figaro and L'Illustration. In 1899 he moved to Berlin where he met his wife, the artist Clara Lotte von Marcard.

In Berlin, Cucuel began painting with renewed vigour in 1907, following his meeting with Impressionist painter Leo Putz (see following lot), whose influence is unmistakable in the American's works. The two artists spent summers together at Putz's Hartmannsdorf Castle, where they hired models to pose for them in the grounds of the estate. Later, Cucuel moved his studio to Munich, frequently painting en plein air at his lakeside property on Lake Starnberg in Bavaria, the setting of the present work. Cucuel's property fronted the lake, with its own private jetty, on which the artist often had his models pose.

The present work epitomises Cucuel's sun-filled pictures of young women outdoors. Am Badeplatz and works like it were eagerly received when they were painted, evoking as they did a wholesome world when much of Europe was coming to terms with the devastating effects of the First World War. Although an American, Cucuel adopted Germany as his home and enjoyed huge success there as the painter of fashionably dressed young women boating, picnicking and bathing in the outdoors.