Holger Christensen (1890 - 1965) "After the Bath" - Standing Male Nude & Nude Boy - Clay Sculpture - Signed but Undated

 

I must admit when it comes to my two sons I am a complete softy. Saying that I am proud of them would be an understatement. The oldest is working on a post-graduate degree and the youngest just earned the rank of Major in the US army. Lord help me, but I must have done something right in raising them. When I saw this clay sculpture of a father & son titled "After the Bath" it touched something in my heart. The artist, Holger Christensen (1890-1965), was, from what little I could find on his biography, a sculptor and designer for the Royal Copenhagen Factory from 1910 to 1960, producing many famous Royal Copenhagen figures. Unfortunately, even my Benezit Dictionary of Artists did not list him, so there is scant biographic information that I could find about this talented artist. Enjoy.

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Here is a small sampling of his works for The Royal Copenhagen Factory:

Joseph Jungwirth (Vienna 1869 - 1950 Stockholm) Herren Akt mi Schatten - Standing Male Nude, Signed and Dated (18)91

 

                         Joseph Jungwirth (1869-1950)- Self-Portrait later in life.

A week ago I was bouncing around on my usual European auction haunts when I decided to try fishing for artworks with various new foreign language search terms when up pops a beautiful standing male nude by the Austrian artist Joseph Jungwirth (1869-1950). The drawing is signed and dated (18)91 and is apparently, if my math is correct, from Jungwirth’s student days at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. He was aged 21-22 when this particular work was executed and shows what a very talented young artist he proved to be. Auction records for his works remain strong to date.  I initially programmed a snipping bid for a hundred Euro’s over the start price and this morning when the first bid showed up on the listing I suddenly realized that my bid would definitely be way too low for this caliber of work and I wanted dearly to add it to my collection. I reprogrammed my bid for several more hundred Euro’s and held my breath. Fortunately I was correct (4 Euro's above the highest bid) and this beautiful drawing has a new home in my collection. Jungwirth is best known for his travels with Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and his creating several portraits for him. Towards the end of his life he is recorded as having lived in Stockholm, Sweden. During the time this drawing was executed he was studying at the Vienna Academy of Fine Art with Sigmund L’Allemand, August Eisenmenger, and Kasimir Pochwalski, all Professors at the Academy. Joseph Jungwirth worked in Vienna most of his career and was awarded a medal in Munich in 1905 and exhibited in Berlin in the same year. Enjoy!

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Here are just a few examples of his works:

Anonymous Artist - 1854 - High School Portrait - Collage of Algiers - Henri Martin - Miniature Portrait (Gouache)

 

I was doing my routine of stumbling around on eBay France several weeks ago when I happened upon something quite unique and If you have been following my blog for any length of time you know what a great admirer I am of any artist who can do righteous justice to a portrait. I happened upon this tiny (8 cm by 11 cm) portrait of a young student of the College of Algiers, dated 1884-1885. I do not think that the seller even realized he had a pencil drawing, overlaid with gouache. It was just a miniature portrait to be disposed of. The pencil markings on the reverse even identified the sitter as “Henri Martin,” class of 1884-1885.

 In the age when the wealthy could hire Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre to produce a photographic likeness of the sitter in perfect detail it remained to the lowly artist with pencil, paper, and watercolor in hand, to produce a tiny, beautiful work of art for the sitter, which is far more beautiful in my humble opinion than any photograph of the time, and which has survived intact for 138 years.  Enjoy as much as I do!

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