Eugen Spiro (1874 Wroclaw - 1972 New York) "Portrait".... Lot 1990

Eugen Spiro (1874 Wroclaw - 1972 New York) "Portrait". Original title Full-length portrait of a young, elegant lady in a long white dress and gloves, her head turned into profile, holding her hat with her right hand because of the wind, in her left hand a folded parasol. Early, rare main work of Spiro, created in 1899, which was illustrated in 1900 in the important Art Nouveau magazine "Ver Sacrum" of the Vienna Secession. Spiro was still at the beginning of his career at this time. Since 1894, Spiro had studied at the Academy in Munich, where he became one of Franz von Stuck's first students in 1895. In 1897 Stuck appointed him his master student and he was given his own studio in the Villa Stuck. After a one-year stay in Italy in 1897/98, Spiro settled first in Munich, then in Breslau. In 1900 Spiro became a member of the Munich Secession (until 1933) and mounted its exhibitions in the Glaspalast in Munich. For a short time, Spiro also seems to have been active in Vienna; he participated in the VII exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1900, and "Die Kunst für alle" wrote: "Fesselnde Bildnisse bietet der Breslauer Wiener Spiro, ein Neuer" (issue 16, p. 369). He participated in numerous other exhibitions and especially his portraits of ladies were appreciated in art magazines since 1900. In 1903-1905, Spiro was married to the actress Tilla Durieux, who became spectacularly famous in 1903 that same year by starring in Oscar Wilde's "Salome." In 1904 Spiro went to Berlin, he enjoyed the vibrant life in the capital, became a member of the Berlin Secession in 1906 (until 1933) and was regularly represented in the Great Berlin Art Exhibitions. During the Weimar Republic, Spiro advanced to become a much sought-after portraitist of personalities from society, business, science and art. After the so-called "seizure of power" of the National Socialists (1933), the Jewish artist was forced to emigrate - in 1935 initially to Paris. In 1940/41 he managed to escape to New York, where he had great success with his portraits and landscapes in the U.S. as well. Oil/painted; doubl.; L. u. sign. u. dat. (18)99. 170 cm x 70 cm. Frame. Lit.: Fig. in "Ver Sacrum. Mittheilungen der Vereingung bildender Künstler Österreichs", 1900. issue 12, fig. p. 195: "Eugen Spiro. Portrait (/) VII Art Exhibition"). In the cat. of the "VII. Ausstellung der Vereinigung bildender Künstler Österreichs Secession" in Vienna, however, the "Portrait" is not listed. In 1902, Spiro took up the composition of the present painting again in a pastel, which depicts the same head and the right hand holding the hat (cf. Abercron B-02-3, ill. pp. 105 and 244: "Portrait of an Actress"). Oil on canvas, relined. Signed and dated (18)99. Published in "Ver Sacrum" 1900, no. 12, page 195.