Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Unable to open [object Object]: HTTP 0 attempting to load TileSource: https://ids.lib.harvard.edu/ids/iiif/17817629/info.json
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
This object does not yet have a description.

Gallery Text

As both a founder of the Munich Secession and an influential teacher at the city’s Royal Academy (where his students included Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky), Franz von Stuck was a central figure in Munich’s art world at the turn of the twentieth century. His modern interpretation of the antique in works such as this sculpture and painting brought him particular success. Wounded Amazon (2002.96) depicts a battle between Amazons and centaurs; the particular subject is not found in classical mythology but is of the artist’s own invention. Though he was clearly influenced by the antiquities in Munich’s Glyptothek museum, Stuck based the painting on photographic studies of a model posed in his studio. Ever since he had featured the goddess Athena on the poster for the first Munich Secession exhibition in 1893, classical female warriors had appeared in his work as symbols of the new art. There are two other versions of this painting, and the artist eventually produced three life-sized versions of the sculpture (2003.132). One was installed outside Villa Stuck, the home he had designed for himself in Munich.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
2003.132
People
Franz von Stuck, German (Tettenweis, near Passau, Germany 1863 - 1928 Munich, Germany)
Title
Amazon
Other Titles
Original Language Title: Amazone
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
1897 (cast after 1905)
Culture
German
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/4995

Location

Location
Level 1, Room 1440, Modern and Contemporary Art, Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Dimensions
64.2 x 46.4 x 17.3 cm (25 1/4 x 18 1/4 x 6 13/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • foundry mark: l.l. of base: GUSS C. LEYRER MÜNCHEN
  • stamp: u.c. of base: FRANZ VON STUCK

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
[Shepherd Gallery, New York, NY], sold; to Theodore E. Stebbins Jr (1982-2003), gift; to the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, 2003.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum, Gift of Theodore E. Stebbins Jr. in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Busch-Reisinger Museum
Accession Year
2003
Object Number
2003.132
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Publication History

  • Peter Nisbet and Joseph Koerner, The Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, ed. Peter Nisbet, Harvard University Art Museums and Scala Publishers Ltd. (Cambridge, MA and London, England, 2007), p. 194

Exhibition History

  • Before Expressionism: Art in Germany circa 1903, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, 10/24/2003 - 02/15/2004
  • Making Myth Modern: Primordial Themes in German 20th-Century Sculpture, Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 07/14/2007 - 12/30/2007
  • 32Q: 1440 Secessionism: Munich, Vienna, Berlin (Expressionism), Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu