The European Art Sale Part II
The European Art Sale Part II
Property of an East Coast Collector
Maximilian Pirner
The Annunciation
Lot Closed
January 30, 05:18 PM GMT
Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
Maximilian Pirner
Czech
1853 - 1924
The Annunciation
initialed and dated M. P. 95 (center left)
pastel on canvas
canvas: 30 1/2 by 42 1/4 in.;77.5 by 107.5 cm
framed: 39 1/8 by 50 3/4 in.; 99.5 by 128.5 cm
Sale: Peter Karbstein, Düsseldorf, 28 March 1990, lot 198
Boetticher, Malerwerke d. 19. Jh. (2. Teil), S. 279
Vollmer, Thieme Becker, S. 86
Benezit, S. 497
L. Hevesi, Ostl. Kunst (1903), S. 310 (3894-22)
Czech artist Maximilian Pirner was a celebrated member of the Vienna Secession, an art movement closely related to Art Nouveau that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors, and architects including Gustav Klimt.
In this ethereal pastel, Pirner sets the Annunciation in a serene, walled outdoor garden. The Virgin Mary and Angel Gabriel are dressed in diaphanous garments and delicately posed to convey an elegant encounter: Gabriel raises his right hand as if to speak and holds a lily in his left while Mary touches an unfurled scroll with one hand and rests the other on her chest, as if to both read and receive the sacred message. Sinuous lines enhanced by the soft sensuality of the pastel medium register Pirner's interest in and adoption of Symbolist aesthetics while the composition recalls early Renaissance works Pirner saw first-hand around 1883 when he visited Italy.
Pirner turned to religious subjects throughout the 1880s and particularly while designing and painting decorative cycles for The Church of St. Wenceslas in Prague's Smíchov district and The Church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Prague's Karlín district (1887-1888).
We would like to thank Dr. Sarka Leubnerova for her kind assistance in preparing this note.
In this ethereal pastel, Pirner sets the Annunciation in a serene, walled outdoor garden. The Virgin Mary and Angel Gabriel are dressed in diaphanous garments and delicately posed to convey an elegant encounter: Gabriel raises his right hand as if to speak and holds a lily in his left while Mary touches an unfurled scroll with one hand and rests the other on her chest, as if to both read and receive the sacred message. Sinuous lines enhanced by the soft sensuality of the pastel medium register Pirner's interest in and adoption of Symbolist aesthetics while the composition recalls early Renaissance works Pirner saw first-hand around 1883 when he visited Italy.
Pirner turned to religious subjects throughout the 1880s and particularly while designing and painting decorative cycles for The Church of St. Wenceslas in Prague's Smíchov district and The Church of St. Cyril and Methodius in Prague's Karlín district (1887-1888).
We would like to thank Dr. Sarka Leubnerova for her kind assistance in preparing this note.