Maximilian Lenz - A World - Google Art Project

Maximilian Lenz (4 October 1860 – 19 May 1948) was an Austrian painter, graphic artist and sculptor. Lenz was a founding member of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

; during his career's most important period, he was a

Symbolist Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...

, but later his work became increasingly naturalistic. He worked in a variety of media, including

oils An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...

lithography Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

and metal

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

Life

Lenz was born in Vienna. He studied at the

Kunstgewerbeschule A Kunstgewerbeschule (English: ''School of Arts and Crafts'' or S''chool of Applied Arts'') was a type of vocational arts school that existed in German-speaking countries from the mid-19th century. The term Werkkunstschule was also used for thes ...

in Vienna, then at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienner

Carl Wurzinger Carl Wurzinger (1 June 1817, Vienna - 16 March 1883, Vienna) was an Austrian history painter and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. Life and work His father was the caretaker for an estate. In 1832, at the age of fourteen, he beca ...

and Christian Griepenkerl. A member of the

Vienna Künstlerhaus The Künstlerhaus in Vienna’s 1st district has accommodated the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung since 1868. It is located in the Ringstrassenzone in between Akademiestraße, Bösendorferstraße and Musikvereinsplatz. The building was erected betw ...

spent the early 1890s in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, designing banknotes in Buenos Aires. In 1897, Lenz left the Künstlerhaus to become a founding member of the

, and his work for the group's first exhibition was hailed as "outstanding". His 1899 painting, ''A World'' (''Eine Welt'', also translated as ''A Day Dream''), draws on the time's prevailing currents, including dreamlike and fantastic imagery painted in intense colour. It was shown at the Fourth Exhibition of the Vienna Secession in spring 1899, and received critical praise for its "graceful charm and dreamy yet sparkling beauty" and its mood of "pure grace and musical euphony". The painting was also shown in winter 1911-12 with the

Munich Secession The Munich Secession was an association of visual artists who broke away from the mainstream Munich Artists' Association in 1892, to promote and defend their art in the face of what they considered official paternalism and its conservative polic ...

. Having shown his picture ''On the Way to Wonderland'' at the Tenth Exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1901 and the Thirteenth Exhibition in spring 1902, at the Secession's Fourteenth Exhibition in the summer of that year (the 'Beethoven exhibition') he showed a number of

s in various metals, which were noted as beautiful and inventive. Some of his copper panels were also shown at the

1904 World's Fair The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the St. Louis World's Fair, was an World's fair, international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, from April 30 to December 1, 1904. Local, state, and federal funds tota ...

St Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. However, a foray, together with various other Secession artists, into

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...

s for the Beethoven exhibition catalogue was panned as "rough" and more like the work of an amateur than an experienced painter, albeit enthusiastic and not totally without merit. With

Gustav Klimt Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's prim ...

, Lenz visited

Ravenna Ravenna ( , , also ; rgn, Ravèna) is the capital city of the Province of Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. It was the capital city of the Western Roman Empire from 408 until its collapse in 476. It then served as the cap ...

in the winter of 1903-04, where they saw and were influenced by the golden

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s. At the Twentieth Exhibition in 1904, Lenz's painting ''Iduna's Apples'', was considered to be one of the highlights amongst the paintings shown, along with the works of Klimt and

Rudolf von Alt Rudolf Ritter von Alt (; 28 August 1812 – 12 March 1905) was an Austrian landscape and architectural painter. Born as Rudolf Alt, he could call himself von Alt and bear the title of a Ritter (knight) after he gained nobility in 1889. Biogra ...

. The large painting, similar in style to Aubrey Beardsley, created a "gorgeous" effect of gold and black: a black-haired woman sits in a lush landscape, wearing only a golden crown and sat on a golden cloak, holding Iduna's apple—also golden—in her hands. Within the Secession, for the first decade Lenz was a

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

influence; after 1910, his work showed more naturalism, and he moved away from the foreground after 1918.

Art nouveau

Lenz served on the Secession's official committee in 1905 and again in 1906. He also exhibited with the Secession in spring 1906, showing ''the Forest King and the Wailing Maiden''; in 1907; in 1908 at the Twenty-Ninth Exhibition; in 1909 and 1910, showing the playful painting ''Marionnetes''; in 1911, showing ''Concert''; in 1913; and as part of a collective exhibition in 1941. His 1913 painting ''A Song of Spring'' was influenced by the dancer

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877 or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance, who performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the US. Born and raised in ...

's 1904 stay in Vienna, sharing her symbolic themes of cyclic renewal and rebirth and featuring mediaeval costume. These ideas and a connection with dance are also prominent within Klimt's work, and the Symbolist movement as a whole. Lenz also painted religious themes, including ''The Baptism of the Ethiopians''. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, Lenz created several posters advertising Austro-Hungarian

war bond War bonds (sometimes referred to as Victory bonds, particularly in propaganda) are debt securities issued by a government to finance military operations and other expenditure in times of war without raising taxes to an unpopular level. They are ...

s. In 1926, he married painter Ida Kupelwieser (1870–1927), the daughter of the

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

Karl Kupelwieser Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austrian ...

. He left the Secession and rejoined the Künstlerhaus in 1938.

Selected works

Maximilian-Lenz-1917-Zeichnet-achte-Kriegsanleihe

* ''Spring''. Colour

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

, 1898, 13.97 x 15.08 cm.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

(accession number: 1991.847). * ''A World''. Oil on canvas, 1899, 121.5 x 186.0 cm.

Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest The Museum of Fine Arts ( hu, Szépművészeti Múzeum �seːpmyveːsɛti ˈmuːzɛum is a museum in Heroes' Square, Budapest, Hungary, facing the Palace of Art. It was built by the plans of Albert Schickedanz and Fülöp Herzog in an eclecti ...

(accession number: 20.B). * ''Woman in White Beneath a Fruited Tree'' and ''Woman in Yellow Beneath a Bare-branched Tree''. Pen, ink and gouache designs for stained glass windows, c. 1900, 11.8 x 14.7 cm and 11.8 x 14.2 cm.

(accession numbers: 1990.606 and 1990.607). * ''The Artist's Studio''. Oil on canvas, before 1902, 47.7 x 57.7 cm.

(accession number: 39.B). * ''Summer Lust''. Oil on canvas, 1906, 74.5 x 100 cm. * ''Spring''. Oil on canvas, c. 1904, 174.2 x 365.7 cm.

National Museum Wales National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

(accession number: NMW A 589). * ''A Song of Spring''. Oil on canvas, 1913, 162.00 x 201.00 cm.

Gallery

File:Maximilian-Lenz-1917-Zeichnet-die-sechste-Kriegsanleihe.jpeg, Poster advertising war bonds (1917) File:Maximilian-Lenz-1902-brass-relief-set-in-marble-and-wood-from-the-14th-Exhibition-of-the-Vienna-Secession.jpeg, Brass relief set in marble and wood from the Fourteenth Exhibition of the Vienna Secession (1902) File:Maximilian-Lenz-1898-Young-women-with-flowers.jpeg, Young women with flowers (1898).

Lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German a ...

for '' Ver Sacrum'' File:Maximilian-Lenz-1902-intarsia-in-beaten-brass-from-the-14th-exhibition-of-the-Vienna-Secession.jpeg,

Intarsia Intarsia is a form of wood inlaying that is similar to marquetry. The start of the practice dates from before the seventh century AD. The technique of intarsia inlays sections of wood (at times with contrasting ivory or bone, or mother-of-pear ...

in beaten brass from the Fourteenth Exhibition (1902) File:Maximilian-Lenz-1917-Zeichnet-die-siebente-Kriegsanleihe.jpeg, Another war bonds poster (1917) File:Maximilian-Lenz-1902-copper-relief-from-the-14th-Exhibition-of-the-Vienna-Secession.jpeg, Copper relief shown at the Fourteenth Exhibition (1902) File:Maximilian Lenz - Marionneten (c. 1909).jpeg, ''Marionnetes'' (c. 1909) File:Maximilian-Lenz-1898-Crying-woman-sat-under-a-tree.jpeg, Crying woman sat under a tree (1898).

for '' Ver Sacrum'' File:Maximilian Lenz - Frühlingstreiben (1898).jpeg, ''Spring Yearning'' (1898). Illustration for '' Ver Sacrum'' File:Maximilian Lenz - Der Waldkönig und das klagende Mädchen (c. 1907).jpeg, ''The Forest King and the Wailing Maiden'' (c. 1907)

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lenz, Maximilian 1860 births 1948 deaths Artists from Vienna Austrian graphic designers Austrian lithographers Austrian sculptors Austrian male sculptors Symbolist artists Members of the Vienna Secession Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni 19th-century Austrian painters 19th-century Austrian male artists Austrian male painters 20th-century Austrian painters 20th-century sculptors 19th-century sculptors 20th-century Austrian male artists 20th-century lithographers Painters from Austria-Hungary