Verso: Kopf-, Figuren- und Tierstudien (head, figure, and animal studies)

Pen and ink over pencil; signed in pen and ink with monogram. Verso: pen, ink and pencil. Size of sheet: 42.2 × 27.6 cm.

Literature:        H. Heyne, Gedanken und Bilder aus der Werkstatt des werdenden Meisters, Leipzig,1925, p. 111, illustrated;

                        Gleisberg, 1992, no. 3, mentioned;

                        Guratzsch, 1995, p. 186, no. C337, illustrated.

Provenance:    Dr. Gustav Kirstein, until 1934;

                        Clara Stein Kirstein, until 1939;

                        Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (L.1669); (Inv.No. Inscribed in pencil ‘I.7766’ bottom left) (De-accession stamp of the Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig);

                        Restituted to Gustav and Clara Stein Kirstein’s heirs;

                        Sotheby’s Sale, London, The Romantic Spirit: Important Nineteenth Century German and Austrian Works of Art, 29 March 2001, lot.45;

                        Private collection, London.

In this finely executed, yet seemingly unfinished pen drawing with traces of pencil, Klinger portrays himself as strangled by love. Karl-Heinz Mehnert connects the present drawing to a never executed set titled ‘Liebe’, together with the ‘Vom Pfeil getroffen’ drawings (Klinger am Arbeitstisch, von Amor angeschossen, 1878, Leipzig 1995, no.c335) and ‘Amor mit dem Pfeil zielend’ (1878, Leipzig 1995, no. c336).