Lot 1544 Dα

The model for this earnest and intimate portrait of a young woman was Leibl's cook Therese Haltmeier, who has gone down in the history of art as “Malresl”. She modelled for the work “In the Kitchen I” (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart) and “Girl on the Stove” and “In the Kitchen II” (both in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne).The shading of the face in "In the Kitchen II" is the same as that of the present work, indicating that although it was probably not intended as a study for the latter, is certainly a predecessor.
In the words of Eberhard Ruhmer, one of the most fascinating things about this work is the “decided unfinishedness of it, which at a first glance could be confused with the brilliant, feigned nonfinito of Lenbach. However, Leibl uses this effect with other connotations: The textured, delicate ashy-grey of the ground shines through in irregular patches across broad swathes of the work, and lends the piece its gentle, rhythmic flow. This fluctuating pattern of surging and simmering settles and congeals above the soft, round curve of the young girl's head (…). Form and essence of a creature who apparently meant a lot to the artist, not merely as a motif, is evoked in an infinitely subtle sketch, glowing in the lightest and coolest of palettes. Leibl's confidently placed date and signature confirm that he considered this delicate gossamer breeze to be completed.” (E. Ruhmer, op. cit.)
Wilhelm Leibl was among the greatest masters of 19th century German painting. Like his contemporaries Carl Schuch, Wilhelm Trübner and Hans Thoma, he searched, in the most modern sense, for the expression of “pure painting”. This meant that he was primarily concerned with the “how” rather than the “what” of art.