The Best Sale Ever
Lot 440:
Description
Keywords: NO RESERVE, Austrian porcelain, Hans Makart, Die Walküre, Wagnerian subject, Valkyrie, late 19th century porcelain, painted porcelain plaque, circular porcelain painting, mythological subject, academic style
Summary:
Exceptional, Hans Makart (Austrian, 1840–1884). Late 19th century hand-painted porcelain plate depicting a Valkyrie figure, inspired by Die Walküre from Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle. The figure is shown in profile, wearing classical armor and holding a spear, set against a stylized landscape background. When Hans Makart moved from Munich to Vienna to take up a highly official appointment in 1869, he was by no means an unknown quantity. The previous year he had achieved extraordinary success with two cycles of paintings (Modern Cupids, and Plague in Florence) which were shockingly unusual for their time. This related to their chromaticity as much as to their content, which bore no relation to contemporary decorative paintings of accepted historical textbook character. In Vienna, it was hoped Hans Makart would bring a breath of fresh air to the Ringstrasse which was then undergoing construction. At first official commissions had to wait, as private clients from industry, business and the upper classes were immediately interested in him. Hans Makart created vast areas of painted décor for salons, dining rooms etc. in Viennese palaces, and quickly became the most sought-after portrait artist in the imperial metropolis. His portraits of Viennese society ladies and actresses embody the splendour and theatre-loving age of which Makart became the undisputed representative.
The porcelain plate is mounted within a square frame with dark surround. Signed with handwritten inscription on reverse reading “H. Makart – Die Walküre, ”
Measurement: 19 x 19 in. (48.3 x 48.3 cm.) approx
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All items are sold as is and may show signs of age, use, wear, or prior restoration. Photographs form an integral part of each lot’s description. The absence of a condition report or notation does not imply that an item is free from defects or in perfect condition.
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