color lithograph, paper, 44x35 cm, signed with a linked monogram: FAK; publisher’s mark at the bottom: Meisenbach, Riffarth & Co; slight damage to the paper at the margin
This is an original Art Nouveau lithographic poster created specifically for the legendary Munich Artists’ Festival in 1898. The print imitates the style of ancient vase painting (the so-called red-figure style) and depicts the god Apollo on a chariot drawn by four horses (a quadriga) with the Muses dancing below.
Friedrich August von Kaulbach (1850–1920) was one of the most outstanding and sought-after German portrait painters of the Belle Époque and the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. He came from a famous, multi-generational Munich artistic dynasty (he was the son of the court painter Friedrich von Kaulbach). He was known as the “painter of luxury and elegance.” He created stunning, radiant portraits of the aristocracy, celebrities, artists, and the wealthiest women of his time (including Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the dancer Rosario Guerrero). He masterfully emulated the style of the Old Masters, such as Hans Holbein, combining it with a modern, French lightness. In 1886, he assumed one of the most important artistic positions in Germany—he became director of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Although he came from an academic background, he was a very open-minded artist. He joined the famous artistic society “Allotria,” from which the revolutionary Munich Secession (Münchner Sezession) emerged in 1892 . This is why his style evolved seamlessly from historicism toward decorative Art Nouveau, as exemplified by the poster he designed for the 1898 carnival ball.
