100 - Paul Hoecker (1854 Oberlangenau – Munich 1910), Dachshund with a Red Slipper.

Paul Hoecker (1854 Oberlangenau – Munich 1910), Dachshund with a Red Slipper. Oil on wood. Approx. 45 x 29.5 cm. Signed upper left. The painting is being added to the list of works by the Paul Hoecker Research Group at the Forum Queeres Archiv München. A dachshund and its prey. With an attentive gaze, he sits facing the viewer, a bright red slipper firmly clenched in his mouth. Paul Hoecker transforms an everyday, comical incident into a pointed and affectionate animal portrait. He depicts the dog not as a representative animal figure, but as the small protagonist of a domestic scene. The frontal gaze, the large drooping ears, and the determination with which he presents his prey lend him an almost human personality. The subtle, idiosyncratic humor of this depiction is also evident elsewhere in Hoecker’s diverse body of work. Appointed to the Munich Academy in 1891 and a co-founder of the Munich Secession in 1892, he was among the innovators of art around 1900. Artists associated with the “Jugend,” “Simplicissimus,” and “Scholle” movements emerged from his class. In 1898, his academic career came to an abrupt end when his homosexuality became a public scandal in connection with his painting “Ave Maria.” Hoecker withdrew from public life and was increasingly forgotten. Only recently have his work and biography—and with them, his significance for Munich’s queer cultural history—been rediscovered. *The Dachshund with the Red Slipper* reveals a particularly personal side of his oeuvre: Hoecker’s delight in the unconventional and in motifs drawn from direct observation. Provenance: Private collection, Rhineland; Private collection, Germany. Taxation: subject to margin scheme (VAT: Margin Scheme).