study for Die Camelien dame (Lady of the Camellias)

 

Max Svabinsky

  1873 - 1952 (biography)

c. 1910  

litho crayon study for a mezzotint 

11 x 9 1/2" image 

unsigned 

1 of 1 unique 

inscribed in unknown hand on original support mat, "Unique Study by Max Svabinsky for his Mezzotint 'Die Camelian dame' (Lady of the Camellias) (Au Stone)" 

 

very thin, ivory wove 

 

 

21297 

$750.00 

Max Svabinksy's subject matter revolved primarily around two subjects: the natural beauty of the Chechoslovakian landscape, and the women in his life, having been raised by his mother, aunt, and grandmother after he was born out of wedlock. These two themes -- natural beauty and feminine beauty -- would be the central focus of his early works and he would often incorporate the two in many of his paintings and prints.

Svabinsky rarely portrayed people outside of the working class and poor unless it was a commissioned portrait. Having himself been born into relative poverty, he found little inspiration in catering to what would become a major marketable theme of Art Nouveau: scenes of the bourgeois enjoying city life.