Max Klinger

Klinger was born in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony to a wealthy and prominent family. He enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe in 1874 where he was a pupil of Karl (or Carl) Gussow. When Gussow left Karlsruhe to become the Director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, Klinger moved to Berlin as well to complete his studies there. Klinger shared a studio with Christian Krohg and the two had a mutual admiration for French naturalist authors like Émile Zola and Gustave Flaubert, who explored the shadowy aspects of urban life and the hypocrisy of society and the bourgeoisie in their novels. At that time realism was the prevailing style in Germany and Arnold Böcklin was one of the few artist active there that Klinger felt a close affinity to. Klinger graduated from the academy in 1877. He was drawn to and studied the etchings and prints of many masters that were more aligned with his sensibilities including Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya, Runge, Menzel, and Rops. He began an apprenticeship studying engraving under Hermann Sagert and soon became a skilled and imaginative engraver in his own right. Klinger visited Brussels for a time in 1879, and the following year he spent time in Munich. He was achieving some notoriety with his pen and ink drawings and prints when in 1881 he published two sets of etchings, including Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove, which was an immediate success and established his reputation. '' (1904), oil on canvas, , Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig With a receptive audience developing in Paris, where the Franco-Uruguayan poet and art critic Jules Laforgue had been celebrating and advocating his prints, Klinger moved to Paris in 1883 where he lived until 1886 or 1887. A friendship with the composer Johannes Brahms developed over a period of 20 years, culminating with Klinger's publication of his print series Brahms Fantasies (1894) and Brahms's dedication of Vier ernste Gesänge (Four Serious Songs), Opus 121, to Klinger in 1896, a year before the composer's death. In 1906 he founded the Villa Romana Prize. After buying a villa in Florence, complete with 15,000 square meter park, recipients of the prize were given the opportunity to stay for a few months and adsorbed the culture of the city. The first beneficiary of the prize was Gustav Klimt, however Klimt waived his honor and passed it on to Maximilian Kurzweil. Later recipients included Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Ernst Barlach and Georg Kolbe. Documentary photographs File:Max Klinger Villa 1900.jpg|Villa Klinger in Leipzig, Germany, on the river Weisse Elster () File:Max Klinger und Elsa Asanjieff, Villa Romana 1905.jpg|Max Klinger and Elsa Asanijeff in the garden of Villa Romana, Florence (1905) File:Unstruth 01.JPG|House on the vineyard of Max Klinger at Großjena, near Naumburg, Germany File:MarmorhermenMaxundGertrudKlinger.JPG|Memorial with portraits at the tomb of Max Klinger and Gertrud Klinger by Johannes Hartmann, Großjena, Germany File:JohannesHartmannGertrudKlinger.JPG|Portrait of Gertrud Klinger (1921), marble, by Johannes Hartmann File:JohannesHartmannMaxKlinger.JPG|Portrait of Max Klinger (1921), marble, by Johannes Hartmann ==Art==

A significant portion of Klinger's reputation is associated with his many cycles and series of intaglio prints, which influenced numerous printmakers and artist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Klinger would adeptly integrate several intaglio media like aquatint, drypoint, and etching in a single plate, producing remarkable formal and tonal qualities. The subjects range from esoteric symbolism to darker aspects of realism. In the cycle A Life (1884), Klinger is often regarded as the first German artist to deal with prostitution as a social problem and the hypocrisy and injustices regarding societies attitude to the subject. The series follow a middle-class woman's descent into prostitution: impregnated, deserted, then rejected by society, she descends into the depths of urban life, and ridiculed by an apathetic and indifferent genteel society. The series A Love (1887) was dedicated to Arnold Böcklin another symbolist artist Klinger greatly admired. which was eventually published in 1891, and subsequently reissued a number of times. The manuscript was well circulated and well read, with a number of later artist and historians referencing it, including Giorgio de Chirico who called Klinger the "modern artist par excellence". In it Klinger asserted the idea that prints and the graphic arts should have a new and significant role in the arts, distinct from painting, and were best suited for stylistic and conceptual experimentation. Also that the differences between naturalism (realism) and neo-idealism, as well as form and content, were reconcilable, and both were possible. Concepts of the Gesamtkunstwerk, an all-embracing art form, with unity among the arts (e.g. painting, sculpture, literature, poetry, music, etc.), were also discussed. Inspired by recent accounts of archaeological discoveries of antique sculptural remains made from various colored stones, Klinger utilized a variety of materials in many of his sculptures. A mixture of bronze, ivory, alabaster, and several different marbles were used in Beethoven. He studied and took measurements of Beethoven's death mask in Vienna and traveled to Laas in southwestern France to personally select the alabaster, and the Pyrenees and Syra (or Syros), Greece to select marbles. Elsa Asenijeff wrote of the unusually complex and difficult process involved with casting the large bronze throne from wax in her book Max Klinges Beethoven: Eine kunst-technische Studie (''Max Klinge's Beethoven: A Practical Artistic Study'') published in 1902. The sculpture was exhibited in an earlier stage of development in Paris in 1885 and later rejected from major exhibitions in Berlin 1887 and 1888. It developed something of a cult-like reputation over the years. The historian Holger Jacob-Friesen illustrates and discusses in detail the influence of Klinger's prints on artist such as Franz von Stuck, Käthe Kollwitz, Edvard Munch, Lovis Corinth, Otto Greiner, Alfred Kubin, Max Slevogt, Paul Klee, Richard Müller, Oskar Kokoschka, Max Beckmann, Horst Janssen, as well as De Chirico and Ernst. File:Dead Mother by Max Klinger, plate 10 from 'Vom Tod', Second Part, Opus XIII, 1889, drypoint, state V-VI - Montreal Museum of Fine Arts - Montreal, Canada - DSC08924.jpg|thumb|Mother and Child (Dead Mother), 1898, engraving and etching, plate size : from the series Vom Tode [From Death], Opus XIII. Print series published by Max Klinger • 1879. Radierte Skizzen (Etched Sketches), Opus I, nos. 1–8. • 1879. Rettungen Ovidischer Opper (Deliverances of Ovidian Victims) Opus II, nos. 1–13. • 1880. Eva und die Zukunft (Eva and the Future), Opus III, nos. 1–6. • 1880, Amor und Psyche (Cupid and Psyche), Opus V, book with 46 etchings • 1881. Intermezzi (Intermezzi), Opus IV, nos. 1–12. • 1881. Paraphrase über den Fund eines Handschuhs (Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove), Opus VI, nos. 1–10. • 1883. Vier Landschaften (Four Landscapes), Opus VII, nos. 1–4. • 1883. Dramen (Dramas), Opus IX, nos. 1–10. • 1884. Ein Leben (A Life) Opus VIII, nos. 1–15. • 1887. Eine Liebe (A Love), Opus X, nos. 1–10. • 1889. Vom Tode, Erster Theil (On Death, Part One) Opus XI, nos. 1–10. • 1894. Brahmsphantasie (Brahms Fantasy), Opus XII, nos. 1-41. • 1898–1910. Vom Tode, Zweiter Theil (On Death, Part Two), Opus XIII, nos. 1–12. ==In contemporary culture==

In Elsa Bernstein's naturalist play Dämmerung, Klinger is mentioned in the third act when Carl talks of being able to afford "etchings by Klinger" for 80 francs. Inspection Medical Hermeneutics, an infamous Moscow art collective, based their 1991 installation Klinger’s Boxes, on an idea inspired by Klinger's Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove. Asteroid 22369 Klinger is named in his honor. ==Gallery==

Paintings File:Max Klinger - Herrenbildnis - 3862 - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.jpg|Portrait of a Gentleman (undated), oil on cardboard, 37.5 x 32.2 cm (14.7 x 12.6 in), Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria File:Max Klinger-Der pinkelnde Tod.jpg|Pissing Death (1880), oil on canvas, 95 x 45 cm. Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany. File:Leipzig, Museum der bildenden Künste, Max Klinger, eine Gesandtschaft.JPG|A Legation (1882), oil on panel, 37 x 63 cm (14.5 x 24.8 in), Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig, Germany File:Max Klinger - Das Urteil des Paris - 433i - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.jpg|The Judgment of Paris (1885–87), oil on canvas, wood and plaster, overall dimensions: 370 × 752 × 65 cm, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria. File:Max Klinger - Christus im Olymp - 433h - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.jpg|Christ in Olympus (1897), oil on canvas with mixed media, overall dimensions: 549 × 965 × 65 cm, (3800 kg), Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria. File:Max Klinger 003.jpg|Landscape on the Unstrut (1912), oil on canvas, 192 x 126 cm (75.5 x 49.6 in), Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg, Germany Sculptures File:Max Klinger - Das Drama (1).jpg|The Drama (before 1904), demotions and collection unknown Image:Max Klinger, Elsa Asenijeff.jpg|Elsa Asenijeff, circa 1900 File:Max Klinger - Athlete.jpg|Athlete (1901), demotions and collection unknown File:Klinger Beethoven.png|Beethoven (circa 1883–1902), height: 3.10 m, Leipzig, Museum of Fine Arts Image:Klinger Beethoven2.jpg|Beethoven Torso (1902), bronze File:Max Klinger - Galathée.jpg|Galatea (1906), cast silver and marble, 111.1 × 31.8 × 47.6 cm Drawings, prints and graphics File:Cupid, Death, and the Beyond, from the series Intermezzi, Opus IV, no. 12 (1881), etching and aquatint, 15.7 × 40.7 cm., Philadelphia Museum of Art.jpg|Cupid, Death, and the Beyond, from the series Intermezzi, Opus IV, no. 12 (1881), etching and aquatint, 15.7 × 40.7 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art File:Klinger - Ängste - 1893.jpeg|Anxieties from the series Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove Opus VI, no. 7 (1881), etching, 7, 13,5 x 25,7 cm, Albertina, Vienna File:Klinger - Entführung.jpeg|Abduction from the series Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove Opus VI, no. 9 (1881), etching, 9, 11,4 x 26,1 cm, Albertina, Vienna File:Intermezzo, from the series A Love, Opus X, no. (1880–1887), etching with engraving and aquatint, 19.1 x 42 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.jpg|Intermezzo, from the series A Love, Opus X, no. 6 (1887), etching with engraving and aquatint, 19.1 x 42 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston File:First Future, from the series Eva the Future, Opus III, no, 2 (1879–80), etching with aquatint, image size; 36 x 23.5 cm., Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri.jpg|First Future, from the series Eva and the Future, Opus III, no, 2 (1879–80), etching with aquatint, 36 x 23.5 cm, Saint Louis Art Museum File:Third Future, from the series Eve and the Future, Opus III, no, 6 (1880), etching, 290 × 201 mm., Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|Third Future, from the series Eve and the Future, Opus III, no, 6 (1880), etching, 290 × 201 mm, Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Jack Daulton File:Klinger Max - Nackte Frau mit tanzendem Phallus.jpg|Sitting Naked Woman with Dancing Phallus (1882), ink pen and brush on paper, 30.6 x 18.7 cm File:Temptation, from the series A Life, Opus VIII, no. 4 (1884), aquatint and etching, with roulette, 47.3 × 22.5 cm. Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|Temptation, from the series A Life, Opus VIII, no. 4 (1884), aquatint and etching, with roulette, 47.3 × 22.5 cm, Art Institute of Chicago File:Downfall, from the series A Life, Opus VIII, no. 12 (1884), etching and drypoint, 27.6 × 22.8 cm. Art Institute of Chicago.jpg|Downfall, from the series A Life, Opus VIII, no. 12 (1884), etching and drypoint, 27.6 × 22.8 cm, Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Jack Daulton File:Max Klinger - Aus dem Zyklus "Ein Leben" Ins Nichts zurück (Opus VIII, Blatt 15-15).jpeg|Back into Nothingness from the series A Life, Opus VIII, no. 15 (1884), etching and aquatint, 29.9 x 24.8 cm File:Max Klinger - Kuss.jpg|Kiss in the Park, from the series A Love, Opus X, no. 4 (1887), etching and engraving, 45.4 x 27.4 cm File:Max Klinger, Evocation (Evocation), NGA 85999.jpg|Evocation, from the series Brahmsphantasie, Opus XII, no, 2 (1894), 21.8 x 34 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington D. C. File:Sisifus the faculties.jpg|Sisifus (The Faculties) (1914) ==References==