Der Zeichner

Der Zeichner is a superb etching made around 1900 by an unknown author, but surely in the circle of Max Klinger (Leipzig, 1857 - Grossjena, 1920).

Title on plate on the lower margin at the center. Posthumous impression of a matrix by an unknown author.

The style of this print refers to the Griffelkunst and to Max Klinger's concept of the "school of stylus". In particular,  Saschia Schneider  of the circle of Max Klinger stands out, because he placed male nudity at the center of his production and of his formal research.

The title  Der Zeichner  recalls Klinger's treaty " Malerei und Zeichnung " and all the related meanings, that is, it combines, in the figuration and in the poetics, the liberating dictates and instances of the so-called reform of life with the neo-Greek cult of the body, carried out by Saschia Schneider himself and by German magazines, such as " Die Schonheit " and " Der Eigene ".

Very interesting work, made with an infinite variety of strokes and a wide range of shades, from black to white. In excellent conditions, and in good general preservation, except for some minimal marginal tears and marginal folds.

Sascha Schneider , stage name of Rudolph Karl Alexander Schneider (St. Petersburg, 1870 - Swinemünde, 1927).

The German painter and sculptor enters the world of art when, in 1903, he meets the famous writer Karl May, and soon becomes the illustrator of the covers of his books Winnetou , Old Surehand , Am Rio de la Plata . A year later, in 1904, Schneider is appointed professor at the Großherzoglich-Sächsische Kunstschule Weimar in Weimar. During this period, he lives an unhappy cohabitation with the painter Hellmuth Jahn, who made public Schneider's homosexuality (at the time punishable under article 175 of the penal code). Thus, he decides to move to Italy, where homosexuality is not considered a crime. Here, Schneider meets the painter Robert Spies, with whom he begins a journey in the mountains of the Caucasus chain. He eventually returns to Germany, where he stays for about six months in Leipzig before returning to Italy, settling in Florence. After 1918, he founds the Kraft-Kunst institute for body building, an environment that provided him with many models for his works.