Max Slevogt
Zwei Nusshäher
Circa 1898
Oil on artist's board 36.4 x 42 cm Framed. Monogrammed 'MS.' lower right. On the reverse of board inscribed by an unknown hand "Prinz Leopold [?] / Slevogt: 'Die Häher'" in blue chalk. - Edges slightly bumped, left edge with two small colour losses. Upper and lower margin each with tiny old loss of colour, upper right area with old scratch.
Max Slevogt has created a classic little hunting piece with the present painting. With broad brushstrokes he has captured the image of two slain Eurasian jays, better known simply as jays, featuring the characteristic shape of their heads and beaks, their red-brown feathers and the striking, blue-and-black striped feathers of their wings. The birds' bodies seem to lie on a beige-coloured sandstone parapet, where they are surrounded and thus set off by dark, leafy and flowering vines, which are not more specifically defined. Max Slevogt was himself an enthusiastic hunter, and the theme appears repeatedly in his work. In 1907 he created a self-portrait in hunting clothes and with a gun (Coll. Georg Schäfer, on permanent loan to the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg); according to Imiela, the 1901 “Erlegter Marder im Grünen” (Slain marten in the countryside) or the 1906 “Toter Fuchs” (Slain fox) can also be mentioned as examples of hunting still lifes from this period (Imiela, n. 42, p. 384). Another passionate hunter, Prince Luitpold of Bavaria, was the prominent original owner of “Zwei Nusshäher”.
Catalogue Raisonné
Imiela, note 42, p. 384
Provenance
Former collection of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Luitpold of Bavaria; Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, auction 108, 2/3 June 1986, lot 1015; Private possession, Palatinate
Exhibitions
Munich 1913 (Münchner Kunstverein), Ausstellung der Gemälde aus der Privatgalerie S.K.H. des Prinzregenten Luitpold von Bayern, no. 406