FRANZ WACIK (Vienna 1883 - 1938 Vienna)Nixe, around 1910mixe...

Estimate

€3,000 - €5,000

FRANZ WACIK
(Vienna 1883 - 1938 Vienna)
Nixe, around 1910
mixed media/cardboard, 32.5 x 25.5 cm
verso stamp Arnold, Lanzenberger Wien, Operngasse 4; beschriftet aus dem Nachlass von Franz Wacik akad. Maler, Magda Daiml Wacik
provenance: Kunstsalon Kovacek Vienna, private collection Vienna

ESTIMATE °€ 3.000 - 5.000
STARTING PRICE °€ 2.500

"Among the most successful and best-known Austrian illustrators of books for children and young people is the Viennese Franz Wacik. His mostly colorfully executed pictorial motifs can be found in works by Hans Christian Andersen and the Brothers Grimm, as well as in the stories of E. T. A. Hoffmann, Hugo von Hofmannsthal or Clemens Brentano. Wacik, who earned his living as a clerk after attending commercial school, first acquired his artistic skills at Strehblow's painting school. In 1901/1902 he found a place at the School of Applied Arts under Roller and from 1902 to 1908 at the Academy of Fine Arts under Professors Griepenkerl, Rumpler and Lefler. He passed his artistic practical test as an illustrator as a contributor to the humorous magazine "Die Muskete", for which he contributed more than 600 colored pictures between 1906 and 1919. In 1924 he created the frescoes on the ground floor of the Secession, of which he became a member in 1910 and where he was represented in exhibitions in 1918 and 1919. In the present composition, Wacik revolves around the fairy tale and legend motif of the mermaid, which can be found, for example, in the stories of the Brothers Grimm about the "The Water-Nixie" and "The Nixie of the Mill-Pond" or in Ludwig Bechstein's legend "The Miller and the Mermaid". Wacik presents the motif of the young mermaid with the white body and the ornamentally dissolved hair splendor in front of a background that is kept in blue tones. Wacik sketchily inserts the hanging branches of a willow in the background. A white, temple-like building with a flat yellow dome forms the actual background. The ornamental, brightly colored dissolution of the surrounding wall of this building, as well as the fish on its upper side, appears like a Klimt quotation. Wacik relies on a decorative-placative effect and forgoes spatiality. In doing so, he follows the design principles of Secessionist graphics."

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The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium.
The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.