September 20, 1932

The label most commonly applied to the art of Max Slevogt (October 8, 1868 to September 20, 1932) is, impressionist. Although he painted landscapes typically, this example of his art shows his wife Nini, and their cat:




We excerpt this biographical article:

".. Slevogt was among the principal exponents of German Impressionism and was influenced by Millet and Courbet.

"His father, adjutant and friend of the future Prince Regent,.... died when Slevogt was just two years old. His mother moved to Würzburg, where he spent his schooldays. Even in his childhood and adolescence, family connections brought Slevogt to Pfalz, to an aunt in Landau and to the Finkler family in Neukastel. Initially he had planned to become a musician, but he began to study painting at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich in 1885. ....

"In 1889 he spent a term at the Académie Julian in Paris. At that time Impressionism had very little effect on him. Following a trip to Italy in 1890 with the painter Robert Breyer (1866-1941) who had befriended him at the Akademie, he began to work independently as a painter in Munich. In 1893 he participated in the first exhibition of the newly founded Munich Secession, exhibiting 'Wrestling School' (1893;...the judges wanted to refuse this painting as immoral since its entwined and naked men caused offence.) In the following years his paintings often appeared harsh and non-academic to conservative Munich circles. At this time Slevogt also made contributions to the journals Jugend and Simplizissimus, which were significant in the development of his graphic work.

"In 1898 he married his childhood friend Antonie ('Nini') Finkler. In the same year he went to Neukastel and on an autumn trip to an exhibition in Amsterdam of Rembrandt's work with the art historian Karl Voll (1867-1917). Voll instructed him in the history of art and published the first monograph on him in 1912.

"In 1900 he traveled to the World Fair in Paris. In 1901 he stayed in Frankfurt where he painted his famous brightly coloured zoo pictures. From 1901 he was in Berlin, working mainly as a portrait painter, and held a master class at the Academy. In 1914 he visited Egypt and painted landscapes in the bright sunlight.

"In 1915 [he] went to Belgium as a war artist. After the was he lived in Neukastel in the Palatinate. In the 1920s he did 500 illustrations for an edition of Goethe's Faust. In 1924 he executed murals for the concert hall at Neukastel and in Berlin. He also did the stage design for Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Dresden Opera."

I hope his wife was as happy as the cat above. Max Slevogt should be better known. You can see more of his work here.