Max Klinger

Max Klinger, an engraver, draughtsman and sculptor, first trained in Karlsruhe in 1874–1875, then at the Berlin Academy of Arts, where he studied under Karl von Gussow. After completing his studies in 1877, he trained with the engraver Hermann Sagert. His series of ten etchings, Ein Handschuh (A Glove), also known by the title Paraphrase on the Finding of a Glove, attests to the important place of printmaking in his work.

In Malerei und Zeichnung, an essay published in 1891, he sets out his ideas on art and attributes to black-and-white drawing a particular capacity to express fantasy and attitudes towards the world. From the summer of 1882, he stayed in Paris on several occasions and visited the Louvre; between 1888 and 1891, he lived in Rome and Naples. He made his first sculpture, a bust of Schiller, in 1883. Sculpture took on an increasingly important place in his work from the end of the nineteenth century.

In 1892, Klinger co-founded Gruppe XI, a collective of eleven artists opposed to the Verein Berliner Künstler. Appointed professor at the Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig in 1897, he continued to pursue his artistic practice. From 1899 to 1902, he created a monument to Beethoven for the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig, unveiled at the Vienna Secession in April 1902. In 1905, together with the publisher Georg Hirzel, he founded the Villa Romana in Florence, conceived to accommodate young German artists; the associated prize enabled them to live and work there. A drawing titled Weiblicher Rückenakt, dated 1919, is described in a sale catalogue as a work in coloured chalks on smooth brown paper, monogrammed and dated “M K 6. Juni 19”.

Works recorded at auction

Lempertz · Lot 144

Weiblicher Rückenakt

Farbkreiden auf glattem bräunlichen Papier

Auction date : 2025-12-05

Published result : 11340 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 8000

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Lempertz · Lot 1134

Die Ruinen von San Tommaso

Watercolour

Original catalogue wording

Die Ruinen von San Tommaso
Aquarell

Auction date : 2025-11-22

Published result : 4410 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 4000

View the lot at the auction house ↗

Lempertz · Lot 1623

Studien zum Menzel-Festblatt

Pencil

Original catalogue wording

Studien zum Menzel-Festblatt
Bleistift

Auction date : 2015-11-14

Published result : 3720 EUR

Including buyer’s premium

Estimate : 3000

View the lot at the auction house ↗