Description:

monogrammed lower centre: LVH
pen and black ink, watercolour and red bodycolour on firm watercolour paper
211 x 109 mm

Provenance:

Kempe collection, Dresden, acquired from in the 1960s
Private collection, Bavaria

Note:

As a founding member of the Berlin Secession, Ludwig von Hofmann bore witness to the great artistic innovations of late 19th and early 20th centuries. His oeuvre encompassed a range of newly emergent styles from Symbolism to Art Nouveau, Historicism to New Objectivity. This exceptionally preserved watercolour likely dates to the final years of the 19th century, between 1895 and 1900, when Hofmann made many such illustrations for the Jugendstil magazine PAN and received his first commissions as a designer for decorative panels and stained-glass windows. Hofmann was a founder member of PAN and made over 60 prints and drawings for the magazine, however this drawing never appeared in its pages. No stained-glass windows with this design are known, although the striking use of colour may suggest that this was its function, the high level of finish may equally imply that the drawing was intended as an independent work of art.

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