1445 - Wilhelm Trübner (1851, Heidelberg – 1917, Karlsruhe)

Wilhelm Trübner (1851, Heidelberg – 1917, Karlsruhe) The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth In this early painting, created around 1882, Trübner depicts the famous first scene at the beginning of Act 5 in Shakespeare’s play “Macbeth.” In this scene, a doctor and a chambermaid encounter the sleepwalking Lady Macbeth. The painter focuses entirely on the eerie moment when Lady Macbeth, gazing at her raised hand, exclaims, “Yet here’s a spot.” Yet the supposed blood of her murder victims on her hand is an illusion that will ultimately drive her to suicide. Through this character, Trübner portrays Lady Macbeth’s emotional turmoil, caused by feelings of guilt, just as powerfully as Shakespeare himself did. The painting was created during Trübner’s time in Munich (1875–1895) and is among the works for which Trübner coined his own term “Begebenheitliches”—that is, those based on historical, mythological, or, as in this case, literary subjects. Trübner depicted the Lady Macbeth motif on several occasions: the version presented here is most closely related to a painting created in 1882, which is only slightly larger and also depicts Lady Macbeth in a cloister (see Joseph August Beringer: “Trübner (…),” Stuttgart/Berlin 1917, ill. p. 145), which had already been published in 1888 as a heliogravure by Gebbie & Husson Co. Ltd. in London. It also depicts the protagonist full-length and in an identical pose as she examines her hand, but he varied in particular the positions of the doctor and the chambermaid. In this painting, he has made the composition even more dynamic by having them half-hidden behind a column. This corresponds to the text of the play: “Watch her, hide yourselves!” Oil on canvas, lined; signed lower left; 101.5 cm x 90 cm. Framed. Lit./Catalog: Klaus Rohrandt: “Wilhelm Trübner (1851–1917): Critical and Descriptive Catalog of All Paintings (...)”, Diss. Kiel 1971/72, Vol. 2, Part 1, p. 312, Cat. No. G 391. Oil on canvas, relined. Signed. Mentioned in the catalogue raisonné.