1329 - Otto Scholderer

Otto Scholderer An odd volume Pastel on card/paper. 73 x 59 cm. Framed under glass. Provenance In the artist's estate until 1902. — Frankfurter Kunstverein, 29.4.1902, lot 80. — Paul Roediger Frankfurt a. M., 1907 and 1934. — Dr. Otto Jordan, Munich - In the family's estate ever since. Exhibitions London 1885: 116th Exhibition, Royal Academy London, 1885, no. 1254. – Manchester 1885: Third Autumn Exhibition, Manchester City Art Gallery, 1885, no. 619. - Berlin 1895: Große Berliner Kunstausstellung. May–September, Berlin 1895, no. 1551. Literature Exhib.-cat. Manchester City Art Gallery, 1885. Third Autumn Exhibition, p. 44, no. 619. – Exhib.-cat. Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, 1895, no. 1551 ill. – F. v. Boetticher: Malerwerke des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts: Beitrag zur kunstgeschichte, Dresden 1898, vol. II, p. 627, no. 14. – Katalog des künstlerischen Nachlasses Otto Scholderer, Frankfurter Kunstverein, 29.4.1902, no. 80. – A. Graves: The Royal Academy of Arts, VII, London 1906, p. 51, no. 1254. – H. Weizsäcker / A. Dessoff: Kunst und Künstler in Frankfurt a. M. im 19. Jahrhundert. II, Frankfurt am Main, 1909, p. 136. – F. Herbst: Otto Scholderer. Ein Beitrag zur Künstler– und Kunstgeschichte des 19. Jahrhunderts, Diss. Heidelberg, 1934, no. 117. – J. Johnson/ A. Greutzner: The Dictionary of British Artists 1880–1940 V, Woodbridge, Suffolk 1976, p. 449. – M. Grosskinsky / B. Sander: Otto Scholderer 1834–1902 die neue Wirklichkeit des Malerischen. Zum 100. Todestag. Haus Giersch–Museum Regionaler Kunst, Frankfurt am Main 2002, p. 72. – J.M. Bagdahn: Otto Franz Scholderer (1834–1902): Monographie und Werkverzeichnis. Diss. Freiburg i. Br. 2002, p. 77, 86, 112, 170, 171, 286, no. 248, p. 685. – J. M. Bagdahn: Otto Franz Scholderer (1834–1902): Monographie und Werkverzeichnis. Berlin 2020, no. 248, p. 210, ill. p. 606. “A knee-length portrait of a girl dressed in light blue, with dark curly hair, reading a book. – A beautiful picture, equally outstanding in its colour scheme and execution.” It was with these words that the catalogue of the Frankfurt Kunstverein described this pastel when it entered the art market in 1902, shortly after the artist’s death. Scholderer’s pastel combines a focus on the quiet moment of reading with a particular attention to the effect of colour and draughtsmanship. The work was created in 1885 for the Royal Academy and dates from a period in which Otto Scholderer repeatedly explored a motif that had already occupied him in the 1870s: reading women. It remains unclear who introduced Scholderer – the brilliant still-life and portrait painter – to genre scenes. However, his intense preoccupation with depicting girls and women reading shows parallels with Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, who also depicted numerous women reading, often in half-length portraits.