Hans Thoma Prints are headed for the conservation Laboratory

Pan ....1896

Above is an illustration of the Hans Thoma print from a later edition that I found on the Adonis Gallery website.

Pan..... 1893

Der Verlorene Sohn .......1919

I have two heavily acid stained Hans Thoma prints, one, a lithograph dated 1893, signed in the plate (not sure of the title, will have to do some research on the print), and the other an intaglio print titled "Der Verlorene Sohn", "The Prodigal Son", dated 1919, signed in the plate and in pencil. Thoma's prints are very collectable and I believe well worth the expense to have them restored and brought back to the original condition at the time of printing.

Update on the untitled Lithograph (May 21, 2010). I happened upon this same print on the Adonis Gallery website and the title of the print is (according to the gallery) "Pan". The print they had is dated 1896 and apparently from a later edition. This print is dated in the plate "93". The Restoration Lab called today and I gave the all clear for the restoration. She indicated the lithograph "Pan" is full sized and was meant to be matted to the outside edges. The other print "Der Verloren Sohn" has been cut down from its original dimensions and can be framed closer to the platemark. The original color is apparently "cream" toned paper. Looking forward to getting them back into my collection in like new condition.

Ernest Sigismund Witkamp (1854-1897) Nude Ephebe Posed With Shield And Staff

Ernest Sigismund Witkamp (Dutch-Amsterdam 1854 - October 1897) studied under Nicolaas van de Waay and Jacobus de Looy. He was one of the first pupils of August Allebe, the illustrious director of the Amsterdam Rijksakademie of Visual Arts. He is famous for his genre, portrait, and figure paintings. Landscape, still lifes, and cityscapes were also in his repertoire. From 1894 to 1897 he was conservator of the Museum Fodor in Amsterdam. His work hangs in several Museums in Holland.

This is one of several museum quality figure paintings in my collection. As I started collecting Academic Nudes I started to see a strange absence of artworks depicting female children as models. Good quality females nudes from the 19th Century were unexpectedly few and far between also yet there seemed to be an abundance of adult Male Nudes and surprisingly a good number of nude boys and male youths. During my research in the Fine Arts library I stumbled upon several books that I believe provide an answer. All too often we will judge subject matter in terms of our own contemporary society and forget that the mores and tastes of the past may in fact be the complete opposite of the contemporary.

In the book "The Male Nude - Tradition and Innovation" the author addresses this:

"From the Renaissance onwards, the nude, and the male nude in particular became the most important unit in a visual vocabulary. The Male Nude was used to excite the viewer not to religious contemplation but to 'heroic virtue.' Nude Male figures are seen as a guarantee of moral purity. Today, none of these emotional and intellectual structures exist now, and the Male Nude has been reduced to the level of a purely genre subject."

During my library exploration I also discovered another book which shed some light on this question also. The book is titled: Ganymede in the Renaissance by James M. Saslow. I will quote some of his ideas regarding the male youth as subject matter for many academic studies and depictions.

"Ganymede in classical mythology was a beautiful trojan boy who became the cupbearer to the gods. Abducted by Jupiter he became the wine pourer, beloved of the gods. Ganymede was a widely popular theme in the 16th century in Italy and the origin of the ephebe in classical tradition. In iconographic terms, the abduction and heavenly service of the beautiful mortal youth represented the epitome of four interlinked emotions:

(1) the rapture of the pure human soul, (2) intellect in the presence of divinity, (3) the uplifting power of chaste earthly love, and (4) both the delight and the disapproval associated with sexual passion, particularily in it's homosocial form. Ganymede became the archetype of ideal, youthful male beauty. Ganymede served as both a symbol of the androgynous ideal of male beauty, and, in his triumph over Hebe, of the superiority of that ideal over feminine beauty and character."

During the turn of the 19th & 20th Centuries prior to the first World War there arose in Northern Europe a sub-group of the Symbolist Movement called the "Cult of the Ephebe", where the male youth took center stage, exemplified by the works of Ferdinand Hodler, Hans Thoma, Magnus Enckell, Ludwig von Hofmann, Franz Stuck, Karl Hofer, and Sascha Schneider. The Symbolist's began with the idea or ideal first, and then sought to find in nature some "correspondence" or equivalence" that might be used in such a way as to announce that this art object was not a replication of that object in nature but rather a vehicle for recognition and contemplation of a higher reality. Objects needed to be presented in an iconic way to accomplish this transformation from object to art, from thing to evocation.

Caption: Standing Nude Ephebe With Shield and Staff

Artist: Ernest Sigismund Witkamp (1854-1897)

Medium: Oils on canvas

Dated: Signed and dated 1877 lower right hand corner

Here are a few examples of Witkamps work:

Portrait of a Young Woman 1894

Secret Amusement 1893

Girl in Atelier 1872

Joseph Uhl (1877-1945) Intaglio Print - Nude Boy

I was going through some photo folders of artworks and I found another example of Joseph Uhl's work. I recall this print was sold on eBay Germany last year but I missed my chance to own it. It is another great example of Uhl's technical skills and that photographic eye of his. Unusual in that it appears to be a female pre-adolescent child. You do not see many examples of those from the 19th or early 20th centuries.

Joseph Uhl (New York 1877 - Bergen 1945) American by birth he moved to Germany at an early age. He studied painting and printmaking at the Art Academy of Munich. Prior to WWI he concentrated on painting and began his mastery of etching and engraving after the war. He created prints of children, nudes, general figure studies, and allegorical images. His work in Germany owes much to the influence of the German Jugendstil movement (Art Nouveau).

Joseph Uhl ....Self-Portrait

I made the scan of this little work larger to show the detail of the drawing. The economy of line is really phenomenial. Uhl must have had the visual acquity of an eagle. The small print measures 4.50 inches by 2.25 inches. If I were a betting man I would wager the small pencil drawing listed in the next post is by Joseph Uhl also.

Caption: Nude Boy , rear view

Artist: Joseph Uhl (1877 - 1945)(Signed in pencil, lower right)

Medium: Intaglio print
Dated: Undated

Additional works by Joseph Uhl:

Morning Swim (Illustration courtesy of Hugh W. Little - Vintage Prints and Fine Arts)

Summer Joy

Unknown Artist - Boy Playing the Flute

As I was walking back to my computer room this morning I noticed sitting on the sideboard what qualifies as the smallest, brilliantly executed, pencil drawing in my collection. The drawing itself measures a scant 4.5 inches by 2.25 inches, but within that small area on paper is a beautifully executed little nude study. Obviously by the hand of a master. The detail in the little drawing is remarkable. The execution of this tiny nude study of an ephebe reminds me of the work of American-German artist Joseph Uhl (1877 New York City - 1945 Bergen, Germany). Uhl was a printmaker who occasionally did small nude portraits of children. The detail of this small drawing is truly amazing. My next post above will be on the work of Joseph Uhl and will feature a small print of a nude boy in my collection. I have seen several of Uhl's prints come up on German websites and they are fought over because of their rarity. I managed to get my print from a seller here in the states who could not read the signature on the print and had no clue what he had. Needless to say I did my homework and snatched it up for my collection. Take a look at the above print, this little drawing, and judge for yourselt.

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Caption: Nude Boy Playing the Flute

Artist: Unknown (Possibly Joseph Uhl (1877-1945)

Medium: Pencil on paper

Dated: Late 19th, early 20th Century

Karoly Ferenczy (1862 Vienna - 1917 Budapest) - Male Nude

Caroly (Charles) Ferenczy (1862 - 1917) was born into a well-to-do middle class family. It was not before completing his law studies and graduating from the College of Economy that Frenczy took up painting, primarily influenced by his future wife Olga von Fialka. He travelled to Italy in 1885 and spent some time in Naples where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti. On a short visit to Munich in 1887 he met young Hungarian painters studying there, all of them influenced by Juks Bastien-Lepage. This association encouraged him to study in Paris (1887-1890) where he attended the Academie Julian. He was taught and influenced by Tony Robert-Fleury and Adolphe-William Bouguereau, but the greatest influence upon his art was Bastien-Lepage. After 1906 he moved to Budapest and became a professor at the School of Drawing in the predecessor of the College of Fine Arts. During his last creative period he mostly painting decorative works of nudes.

Caption: Standing Male Nude

Artist: Karoly Ferenczy (1862 - 1917)

Medium: Conte on paper

Dated: circa 1887 - 1890 - signed on the lower right corner

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This is a nicely exectued standing male nude. Most standing male nudes take on the upright contraposito stance with the weight shifted to one leg and the other leg bent at the knee. This is a nice variation of that pose with the model leaning on that wicker stool. The artist has captured the pose and the model in fine detail. The model sports a nice set of family jewels..... well you get the idea if you look closely enough at the anatomy of his daingly parts. Needless to say it must have been a challenge to get all of that stuff in the drawing without taking a deep breath.

Here are a few additional mature works by Ferenczy:

Adam 1894

Three Boys Bathing 1912

Orpheus 1894

Sleeping Woman 1912

Acrobats 1913

Boys Throwing Pebbles Into The River 1890

Double Portrait - Beni & Noemi 1908

Please continue to scroll down....how all this space got here is a mystery to me...

The du Gardier 19th Century Male Nude - Full Restoration

I received a packet of photographs from the Conservation Laboratory on Tuesday but they are not of a good quality unfortunately. I have scanned the "after" and a few "before" photographs to give some idea what the restoration looks like. The painting will be shipped next Tuesday, and after it is unpacked, I will photograph it myself and post the photographs here for your enjoyment. By cleaning the surface the painting beneath decades of grim and dust has been rejuvenated and its natural beauty revealed. I am excited about this fantastic addition to my collection and about the restoration. Having professional restoration done on an artwork adds value to the work, and much more enjoyment. I intend to send two Hans Thoma prints for restoration next. They are both heavily acid stained by being framed in non-archival materials during the later 19th and 20th centuries. I am feeling better after my hospital stay and the medication has been effective so far with some lightheadedness as a side effect. Enjoy.

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I have been trying to think of a way to list the rest of my collection and have pretty much decided to just list them in no particular order. I will try to provide information regarding the artist when I have it and some examples of his or her later works. Until next time then.

The du Gardier Male Nude has been restored..

Well, a somewhat pesky electrical problem with the old heart has kept me tied down in a hospital bed for a week and more tests are scheduled in the near future. Having a heart rate of 209 is uncomfortable and being shocked by those defibrillators is like being kicked in the chest by a small mule. Not fun, I assure you. It took the eyes and time-tested experience of a gray haired old doctor in the emergence room to come up with a remedy that has been around since the dawn of time to stabilize an old heart, and, the best thing is, it worked, and no defibrillation was necessary. The modern medications they gave me didn't do the trick but the old time-tested been around forever did. If they had used that darn defibrillator again it would have been the third time in one day.

When I arrived home from the hospital I received a Priority mail envelope with before and after photographs of the du Gardier male nude. As soon as I get the painting back later this week, I will photograph it myself and post the photographs here on the blog. I am away from home right now or I would scan the "after" photo's and post them.