1312 - Theater

Theater by Hofmann, Ludwig 4 works. The Annunciation by the Angels. Illustration sketches for Gerhart Hauptmann’s *Hannele’s Ascension*. Circa 1894. Pastel and charcoal on brown vellum. 24 x 36.5 cm and 23.7 x 36.8 cm. A Host of Angels. Illustration design for Gerhart Hauptmann’s “Hannele’s Ascension.” Charcoal and pastel on paper. 22 x 17 cm. Partially mounted on a backing. - Royal theater scene. Circa 1894. Charcoal on handmade paper. 24 x 20 cm (30.5 x 20.5 cm). Mounted in places on a backing. - Left margin rubbed; verso has subtle brown spots. - Paper yellowed and left margin with a torn edge. Slight crease marks in the corners. Overall, very good condition. Each mounted in places on a backing board. - One work has annotations on the reverse. Paper rubbed and with slight tears along the edges. Overall, good condition. Both prints were created during the formative phase in which Ludwig von Hofmann—trained at the Dresden Academy, under Ferdinand Keller in Karlsruhe, and at the Académie Julian under the formative influence of Puvis de Chavannes— —was breaking away from his historicist roots and developing the lyrical, decorative pictorial style that would soon make him one of the leading illustrators for the magazine “Pan” and, in 1899, a founding member of the Berlin Secession. Dated around 1894, these sketches thus fall squarely within the decisive transitional period between his academic training and the Symbolist maturation of his oeuvre. The subject matter is Gerhart Hauptmann’s dream poem “Hannele,” which translates the feverish delirium of a dying girl from a poorhouse into a sequence of images featuring both menacing and comforting apparitions, culminating in the announcement of heavenly salvation by angelic messengers —an intertwining of a naturalistic milieu of misery and a Symbolist vision of salvation that epitomizes the aesthetic climate of the 1890s. Hofmann translates this literary vision into a reduced, atmospherically shadowed visual language: The kneeling figure of the girl, her hands clasped and facing the dreamlike image, emerges as the only clearly contoured form from a half-light of shadowy figures that—barely more than fleeting outlines —seem to emerge directly from the dying woman’s state of consciousness. The soft pastel rendering on the warm-toned Veliné deliberately forgoes narrative detail in favor of a suggestive condensation that perfectly matches the visionary character of the poetry and at the same time foreshadows Hofmann’s later visual language, characterized by rhythmic lines and dreamlike detachment. The two sheets, which are nearly identical in size, form a compositional counterpart and thus document a rare, direct testimony to the visual artist’s response to Hauptmann’s work—a point of reference that exemplifies Hofmann’s position at the intersection of literary Symbolism and emerging Art Nouveau. Theater. 4 works. Annunciation of the Angels. Illustration designs for Gerhart Hauptmann’s “Hannele’s Ascension” (“Hanneles Himmelfahrt”). Each circa 1894. Pastel and charcoal on brown vellum paper. 24 x 36.5 cm and 23.7 x 36.8 cm, respectively. Each is mounted at points onto a backing sheet. — Charcoal and pastel on paper. Partially mounted on a backing board. — The paper has yellowed, and the left-hand edge is torn. There are small creases in the corners. Overall in very good condition. - One work has annotations on the reverse. The paper is rubbed and has slight tears at the edges. Overall in good condition. The two sheets date from that formative phase during which Ludwig von Hofmann—trained at the Dresden Academy, under Ferdinand Keller in Karlsruhe, and at the Académie Julian under the formative influence of Puvis de Chavannes—broke away from his historicist roots and arrived at the lyrical, decorative pictorial style that would soon make him one of the leading illustrators of the journal “Pan” and, in 1899, a founding member of the Berlin Secession. Dated to around 1894, these designs thus fall squarely within the crucial transitional period between his academic training and the Symbolist maturation of his oeuvre.Their subject is Gerhart Hauptmann’s dream-drama “Hannele,” which premiered the previous year and translates the feverish delirium of a dying workhouse girl into a sequence of threatening and consoling apparitions, culminating in the announcement of heavenly redemption by angelic messengers—a fusion of naturalistic scenes of destitution with a Symbolist vision of salvation that epitomizes the aesthetic climate of the 1890s. Hofmann translates this literary vision into a reduced, atmospherically shadowed pictorial language: the kneeling girl, her hands folded as she turns toward the dream vision, emerges as the only clearly contoured form from a half-darkness of figures indicated only schematically—figures that are barely more than fleeting c