KURZWEIL MAXIMILIAN ( 1867-1916 )
Martha Kurzweil, his wife, seated on a couch.Very beautiful proof on fine Japanese paper published in the magazine: "Jahresmappedes Geselschaft für Vervielfältingende Kunst in Wien"Proof mounted on its original Japanese paper support.1903Novotny-Adolph: 428Wood engraving in five colors, yellow, green, brown, blue, black.There are variations in the print, our test belongs to "group B" Blue dress, green sofa, gray shade.Max Kurzweil was the co-founder of the Viennese Secession in 1897.He co-edited and illustrated the monthly magazine Ver sacrum from January 1898.Relatively early, in the early 1890s, a decisive change occurred in Kurzweil's life and art, when he came into contact with French painting. He worked in Paris from 1892 to 1894 and made regular summer stays in Concarneau where a colony of artists, including Signac and Andri, was established. What particularly marked him was the painting of Vuillard and Bonnard, and the black and white graphics of Vallotton.It was also at this time that he met Martha Guyot, daughter of a merchant and deputy mayor of Concarneau. The following summer, they became engaged and then married in 1895. The most important of Kurzweil's rare prints is this color woodcut.In Kurzweil's work, this woodcut most clearly embodies the personality of the artist and at the same time the essence of an artistic movement, even the essence of the face of a century. Much of what Art Nouveau expresses about the spirit of the age can be read in this sheet, the characteristic floral style found in both the cushion and the sofa pattern. But this "ornamental cheerfulness" is counterbalanced by the sobriety of the color of the dress and the position of his wife with her face hidden, buried, as if taking refuge in a melancholy which was gnawing at the artist...