4485 - Leo Samberger, Portrait of a Young Man

Leo Samberger, Portrait of a Young Man A half-length portrait of a young man gazing sceptically at the viewer with an imposing expression; presumably a portrait of Dante Alighieri, whose physiognomy he repeatedly explored; this portrait study, rendered briskly in shades of brown and limited to the essential details, still impressively demonstrates the influence of Franz von Lenbach, from whom the artist later distanced himself. Samberger remarks on his working method: ‘... I painted my fellow artist Huber-Feldkirch as a finished portrait in a single afternoon. This is surely most in keeping with my temperament. Working out the fine details, you see, is not my thing. I am somehow driven by the urge to push forward boldly. …” and Bruckmann elaborates: “… Even more so than in the case of Franz von Lenbach, from whom he drew inspiration, Leo Samberger’s shorthand-like capture of facial expression is particularly pronounced. With his rapid brushwork, which concentrates on the essential features of the face and largely neglects the body, he sometimes crosses the line into caricature. ...”, oil on cardboard, c. 1900, signed “LeoS” in the top left-hand corner, indistinctly numbered and inscribed on the reverse as “Leo Samberger” and “Purchased at auction at Ruef, Munich, Nov. 1972”, minor signs of ageing, mounted in a gold frame, inner dimensions approx. 68 x 58.5 cm. Artist information: also signed “LeoS”, German painter, draughtsman, caricaturist and portraitist of Munich’s high society (1861, Ingolstadt - 1949, Munich-Schwabing); spent his childhood in Bamberg; studied from 1880 to 1887 at the Munich Academy under Gyula (Julius) Benczúr and was a master student under Wilhelm von Lindenschmit the Younger from 1883 to 1887; initially strongly influenced by Franz von Lenbach, he undertook a study trip to Italy; from 1888 onwards, he worked as a freelance artist in various Munich studios; a founding member of the Munich Secession in 1892; submitted works to the first exhibition of the German Artists’ Association in 1904; contributed to the Munich magazine *Jugend*; Member of the Reich Association of Visual Artists of Germany and, from 1933, of the Reich Chamber of Fine Arts; exhibited, amongst other venues, at the Kunstpalast in Düsseldorf, the Glaspalast in Munich and, from 1937 to 1943, at the Great German Art Exhibition in the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich, In 1943, following the destruction of his studio in Munich, he fled to Geitau (now part of the municipality of Bayrischzell in Upper Bavaria); from 1900, he held the title of professor and was an honorary member of the Munich Academy of Fine Arts; In 1900, he was represented at the World Exhibition in Paris, where he was awarded a gold medal; honoured with the Order of St Michael, 4th and 3rd classes; in 1910, Knight of the Bavarian Order of Maximilian; in 1941, the Goethe Medal; in 1944 included in the ‘List of the Divinely Gifted’; around 1945 also in Ebenhausen; in 1948 returned to Munich and became a member of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts; Source: Thieme-Becker, Vollmer, Saur, *Bio-Bibliographical Encyclopaedia of Artists*; register of the Munich Academy; Bruckmann, *Munich Painters of the 19th/20th Centuries*; Müller-Singer, Davidson, Jansa, Villa Stuck “Secession 1892-1914”, Dressler and the internet.