183 - Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867, Troppau – Düsseldorf, 1908), Elegant Lady Getting into an Opel Automobile.

Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867, Troppau – Düsseldorf, 1908), Elegant Lady Getting into an Opel Automobile. Watercolor, highlighted in white, and pencil on brownish vellum. (ca. 1906). Approx. 23 x 29.5 cm. Signed lower right. Joseph Maria Olbrich was, in his day, what we would today call a designer. In a manner characteristic of Viennese art around 1900, he advocated an expanded concept of art that dissolved the boundaries between genres. Architecture, arts and crafts, and everyday objects were to be united into a unified aesthetic concept. Olbrich’s work thus exemplifies the idea of the “Gesamtkunstwerk” (total work of art), in which the various arts are united. Joseph Maria Olbrich’s collaboration with the Opel family in Rüsselsheim began in 1906. It represents an early fusion of art, industrial production, and the design of modern everyday life. In addition to the so-called “Opel Workers’ House,” the collaboration also included a conceptual design for an Opel automobile. The designs created around 1906 are among the remarkable early examples of a renowned architect and artist who viewed the exterior form of an automobile as a design task in its own right, thereby combining art with industrial mass production. In contrast to the well-known design concept, the automobile in this drawing appears less as an elegant status symbol and more as the protagonist of an everyday scene. The meticulously executed drawing combines the technical achievement of the automobile with the fashion and social life of its time. It is precisely this connection between function, form, and atmosphere that gives the drawing its special appeal. The depiction conveys an impression of the dawn of the modern era, in which the automobile became a symbol of mobility and technical progress. Thus, this drawing uniquely brings together a historical testimony and an artistically executed drawing. Olbrich’s collaboration with Opel ended as early as 1908 with the artist’s untimely death from cancer. The work is therefore also of interest as a testament to Olbrich’s broad understanding of design. Provenance: Private collection, Rhineland. Taxation: subject to differential taxation (VAT: Margin Scheme).