6808 - Müller, Richard

Müller, Richard The Brazen Suitor. Pencil. 79.4 x 62.7 cm. Signed and dated in the upper right corner "Rich. Müller / 1913 -". The year 1913, when this drawing was created, marks a high point in Richard Müller’s career as a draftsman. Both technically and in terms of subject matter, the artist achieved a level of mastery that was scarcely surpassed even by his later works. Our magnificent drawing from this significant creative phase is not only one of the earliest outstanding depictions of Müller’s favored “woman-animal” theme, but is also its best-known example. Müller developed the marabou motif based on contemporary depictions of privy councilors in tailcoats, top hats, gloves, and with walking canes. In addition to a naivety coupled with arrogance, Müller attributed one further negative trait to this figure above all else: sexual desire. The Privy Councilor, here in the form of an old, nearly bald, and rather unattractive marabou, courts young women. In our print, the love-struck bird approaches a young, beautiful woman kneeling naked on the ground. As a token of love, he carries rose branches in his beak, their blossoms already plucked; their petals lie scattered on the ground. The beloved has raised one hand protectively to her face, while in the other she holds a shoe, ready to fend off the intrusive bird. Müller repeatedly explored the motif of the suitor in various variations. The particular fascination of this depiction lies in its extraordinary whimsicality. From a technical standpoint as well, *The Brazen Suitor* represents a high point in Müller’s oeuvre, particularly in the illusionistic rendering of different materials and surfaces. Never before—nor in any later work—did he create plumage of comparable delicacy, in which down feathers and flight feathers are so precisely distinguished from one another in their respective textures. Equally impressive is the meticulous rendering of the leather on the gloves and shoes, as well as the velvet of the gleaming top hat with its silky lining. The print gained widespread recognition through its distribution as an art postcard and through painted variations (Wodartz M 1916.06, M 1921.02, M 0000.72). Ten years after its creation, Müller also published the motif in 1923 as a reduced-scale etching measuring 29.6 x 24.0 cm (see Rolf Günther: Richard Müller: Life and Work with a Catalog of Prints, Dresden 1995, p. 212, cat. no. 124). Provenance: Private collection, Dresden-Blasewitz. Arnoldi-Livie Gallery, Munich, 1986. Private collection, Southern Germany. Lit.: Franz Hermann Meißner: The Work of Richard Müller, Dresden 1921, p. 68 ff., ill. p. 93. Arnoldi-Livie Gallery: 70 Drawings and Paintings. 1590–1913, Cat. 13, Munich 1986, p. 86, Cat. No. 51 (ill. p. 87). Corinna Wodarz: Symbol and Eros: The Visual Worlds of Richard Müller (1874–1954) with a Catalog of His Complete Works, Göttingen 2002, pp. 206 ff., ill. 131, cat. no. Z 1913.03. - Please ask for condition reports for the lots, as the condition is usually not specified in the catalog. - Please ask for condition reports for individual lots, as the condition is usually not mentioned in the catalog.