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Gallery Text

As both a founder of the Munich Secession and an influential teacher at the city’s Royal Academy (where his students included Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky), Franz von Stuck was a central figure in Munich’s art world at the turn of the twentieth century. His modern interpretation of the antique in works such as this sculpture and painting brought him particular success. Wounded Amazon (2002.96) depicts a battle between Amazons and centaurs; the particular subject is not found in classical mythology but is of the artist’s own invention. Though he was clearly influenced by the antiquities in Munich’s Glyptothek museum, Stuck based the painting on photographic studies of a model posed in his studio. Ever since he had featured the goddess Athena on the poster for the first Munich Secession exhibition in 1893, classical female warriors had appeared in his work as symbols of the new art. There are two other versions of this painting, and the artist eventually produced three life-sized versions of the sculpture (2003.132). One was installed outside Villa Stuck, the home he had designed for himself in Munich.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2002.96
People
Franz von Stuck, German (Tettenweis, near Passau, Germany 1863 - 1928 Munich, Germany)
Title
Wounded Amazon
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Verwundete Amazone
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1905
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/143495

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1440, Modern and Contemporary Art, Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin
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Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
62.8 x 72.7 cm (24 3/4 x 28 5/8 in.)
framed: 77.2 x 87.4 x 5 cm (30 3/8 x 34 7/16 x 1 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: in oil at l.r.: Franz Stuck 1905
  • inscription: on verso, black ink, stencilled: F / 30 [cancelled in black] / 61
  • inscription: on verso, black ink, handwritten: 1843

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Neumeister Münchener Kunstauktionshaus GmbH & Co. KG, Munich, 1979 (auction 192), lot. 1619, ill.
Neumeister's Moderne, Munich, 6, sold, 6. (auction 31), lot 678, col. ill. (bought in)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Purchase through the generosity of the Acquisitions Committee of the Friends of the Busch-Reisinger Museum (Rolf Becker, Günther Engler, Andreas Langenscheidt, Michael Hoffmann-Becking, Carol Johnssen, Renate Küchler, Karl Wamsler, and Wilhelm Winterstein) in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Busch-Reisinger Museum
Accession Year
2002
Object Number
2002.96
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 193

Exhibition History

  • Before Expressionism: Art in Germany circa 1903, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/24/2003 - 02/15/2004
  • Re-View: S422 Ancient & Byzantine Art & Numismatics, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 04/12/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • 32Q: 1440 Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin (Expressionism), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu