(Salzburg 1840-1884 Vienna) Die Nixen and der Tiger, ca. 1872/73, signed Hans Makart, oil on canvas, 117 x 232 cm, framed, (Rei)

Provenance: Collection of Theodor August Havemeyer (1839-1897), New York;
his widow Emily de Loosey Havemeyer (1844-1914);
the auction of their estate American Art Galleries, New York, 18 November 1914, lot 82;
collection of Josef Stransky (1872-1936), New York; 18 November 1914, lot 82;
Galerie Heinemann, Munich (no. 14856), ca. 1920;
collection of Nicolaos Embiricos (ca. 1866-1951), Paris
Fisher Fine Art, London 1978
Kunsthandel Reinhold Hofstätter (1927-2013), Vienna
Dorotheum Vienna, 27. Mai 1998, Lot 95 (not sold)
Kunsthandel Reinhold Hofstätter, Vienna

Literature: Gebert Frodl, Hans Makart, monograph and catalogue raisonné, Residenzverlag Salzburg 1974. P. 138–793, catalogue raisonné 197, owner unknown.

It is suggested that Makart created the “grandiose, large-format painting” for his own studio. (Cicerone VIII, 1916, P. 221; Fig. 17.)

Hans Makart was given the opportunity to use a room in the Imperial Picture Gallery in Upper Belvedere as his studio from September 1869.

It is telling that Makart’s work in Vienna did not begin with a commissioned piece, and instead with the design of his apartment and his studio. The first of the feted studio parties took place in 1873 to mark the completion of his painting “Venice honours Caterina Coruaro”.

The studio is inseparable from Makart himself. Not only was it where he worked, it was also the world he created. The press spoke of him as a “stocky man with a black beard and glowing eyes, performing veritable feats of artistic magic in the paintings he produced in his studio”. Some artists, generally from Makart’s entourage, even viewed the studio as a popular motif, among them Eduard and Hugo Charlemont, Rudolf von Alt and Theodor von Hörmann. (Gebert Frodl, Hans Makart, Sbg. 1974, P. 15–18).

Provenance: Collection of Theodor August Havemeyer (1839-1897), New York;
his widow Emily de Loosey Havemeyer (1844-1914);
the auction of their estate American Art Galleries, New York, 18 November 1914, lot 82;
collection of Josef Stransky (1872-1936), New York; 18 November 1914, lot 82;
Galerie Heinemann, Munich (no. 14856), ca. 1920;
collection of Nicolaos Embiricos