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Artist or Maker: Arnold Böcklin (Swiss, 1827-1901)

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Provenance: A gift from the artist to the father of the sitter, Ludwig Przibram von Gladona, Zürich, 1892; by descent to his son, Albin Ritter von Prybram-Gladona, Munich, 1918; by descent to his wife, Charlotte von Prybram-Gladona, Salzburg, since 1974.

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Exhibited: Venice, XVa. Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte della città di Venezia, 1926, no. 9, as: Ritratto di giovinetto.
Basel, Kunstmuseum Basel, Arnold Böcklin 1827-1901, 11 June-11 September 1977, no. 190.

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Literature: H.A. Schmid, Arnold Böcklin, Munich, 1901, p. 66, ill.
A. Fey, "Arnold Böcklin in Zürich", Neujahrsblatt, 1902, p. 13.
H.A. Schmid, Arnold Böcklin. Eine Auswahl der hervorragendsten Werke des Künstlers in Photogravüre, IV, ill. p. 66 and p. XVI, no. 319.
L. von Przibram, "Erinnerungen an Böcklin", in: Deutsche Revue, XXXIII, Vol. 3, July-September 1908, p. 284.
R. Andree, Arnold Böcklin. Die Gemälde, 1977, no. 432, p. 501.
F. Zelger, "Kinder, Engel, Amoretten. Varianten eines Motivs im Oeuvre von Böcklin", Arnold Böcklin 1827-1901, Basel 1977, p. 104.

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Notes: Charlotte von Prybram-Gladona (1910-2002) was born on the 21st of March 1910 in Munich. In 1934, aged 24, she married Albin von Prybram-Gladona in Vienna, who was twenty years her elder. He was Austrian, born in 1890 in Zürich as the son of an Austrian diplomat. They had met at dancing class, which he, an art historian and a journalist, attended to keep fit. His family was very well known in Austria and entertained the highest echelons of the cultural elite. Great intellectual figures such as Einstein, Schweitzer, Rilke and Thomas Mann visited the family's homes in Zurich, Meran and Munich on a regular basis. With some, affiliation with the family stretched to a more personal level. Albin, for instance, called Johannes Brahms 'uncle Jo'.

Charlotte travelled with her husband to Italy where he introduced her to the various facets of history of art. Due to the threat of war in 1938 they moved to Paris. They were able to weather the storm of the war which inevitably came to them in Paris. During an unexpectedly long stay of 30 years in Paris, Charlotte attained a masters degree on Casper David Friedrich at the Sorbonne. She worked for different institutes and galleries as researcher and wrote various essays.

In 1961 they had bought a holiday home in Salzburg and in 1969 they moved from Paris to Salzburg. The same year Charlotte published her work 'Unbekannte Zeichnungen alter Meister aus Europäischem Privatbesitz'. In the last sentence of her manuscript the author states that she always lived for Nature and Art. Her ecclectic collection, which was partially sold in these rooms on 15 February 2005 is a testament to this passion which she had shared with her husband for forty years.

THE PROPERTY OF THE LATE CHARLOTTE VON PRYBRAM-GLADONA
(Lots 136-137)

Arnold Böcklin was arguably the most influential painter in the German-speaking countries in the last decades of the 19th century. His work and especially his symbolist landscapes from the 1880s, for which he is best known, had wide-ranging appeal. Hans Thoma, Franz von Stuck and the surrealists Max Ernst and Giorgio de Chirico among others, all sought inspiration from his work.

After having moved from Florence to Zürich in 1886, in order to provide his children with an education in the german language, Arnold Böcklin befriended the Austrian-Hungarian General Consul in Zürich, Ludwig Przibram von Gladona. Their friendship would last until Böcklin's death in 1901. Przibram introduced Böcklin to local artists and scholars and the two regularly met at the home of the Consul. Przibram has described his friendship with the artist in his Erinnerungen eines alten Österreichers, which was published in 1912. Following a decree by the emperor in 1896, Albin would later be known as Albin Ritter von Prybram-Gladona.

The present lot, which has been in the possession of the descendants of Ludwig Przibram ever since, is one of the lasting testimonies of this friendship. The painting shows Albin, the son of Ludwig and his wife Anna (see the next lot), at the age of two years. Böcklin, whom the boy fondly called 'Grosspapali', painted the present lot at Przibram house over Easter in 1892. Shortly afterwards he would suffer from a stroke and move back to Italy for health reasons.

According to family anecdote, the artist included an image of the boy's favourite dog 'Prinz' in the painting to please the boy. He is seen pointing to the image of the black dog in his scrapbook. The child is shown in grown-up surroundings: he is standing on a large chair and leaning on the table, drawing us with his hands to his scrapbook, the only reference to his childhood world. His expression is a mixture of seriousness and melancholy. In the exhibition catalogue of 1977, F. Zegler described the tension between innocence and confidence in the present lot as follows: "An die Hofmannsthalsche Welt des österreichischen Fin-de-Siècle erinnert auch das Bildnis des zweijährigen Albin von Przibram" (Zegler, loc.cit).

The portrait of Albin is the last recorded children's portrait by the artist. As a father of fourteen children, eight of whom died at a young age, Böcklin held a special fascination for children and their carefree, uncomplicated natures. He has painted some outstanding children's portraits throughout his career, focussing on the traits of the child's composure that he liked best. In the late 1860's Böcklin painted various portraits of deceased children of Basel families, not just for financial reasons but also out of compassion with the bereaved parents. In contrast to the spontaneous poses and simpler compositions from his earlier children's portraits, the present lot shows a monumentality in colour and composition.

It is a known fact that later on in his career, Böcklin preferred tempera above oil paint, although he would sometimes make use of both media in one painting. It is possible that both media were used in the present lot.

A children's scrapbook from the family which is very likely to be the one depicted in the present lot, a children's dress similar to the one worn in the present lot and a copy of H. Schmid, Arnold Böcklin. Eine Auswahl der hervorragendsten Werke des Künstlers in Photogravüre, are also included in this lot.

We are grateful to Dr Hans Holenweg for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including € 150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in exces of € 150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.