Technique: Indian ink over Pencil on Paper

Inscription: Lower right signed: "Hans Thoma".

Date: c. 1880

Description: In 1893, Edvard Munch, in a letter to his friend Johan Rohde, had passed a rather disparaging judgement on German art in general, but also singled out individual artists: "Arnold Böcklin, for example, who, as far as I can see, towers above all modern artists - Max Klinger - Hans Thoma - Wagner among the musicians - Nietzsche among the philosophers".The mention of Böcklin and Thomas in the same breath may be surprising today, but both were considered the founders of German Symbolism around 1900. The role they played in German art can also be seen from the fact that in 1905 they were both the subject of a debate between Julius Meier-Graefe, the pioneer of modernism in Germany, and Henry Thode, Thomas' biographer, on the question of what was modern in German art. The connection between Thomas and Böcklin had lasted for a long time; Thoma had met him in Munich in 1872, and he was attracted by Böcklin's mythical creatures, the sea creatures, fauns and sirens that populate his paintings. Especially after Thoma left Munich and finally settled in Frankfurt in 1877, sea creatures, which symbolise the original unity of man and nature in a similar way to Böcklin, became more and more frequent in his work. Inspired by Böcklin, Thoma made mermaids, tritons and dolphins the subject of his symbolist imagery, without, however, reaching its meaningful depth. Thode had called these motifs, which belong to the realm of water, "fantasies". The sheet with Neptune's train also belongs to this realm of fantasy - an object borrowed from classical mythology that had repeatedly enjoyed great popularity in antiquity and also in modern times. Thoma depicts the procession of the Nereids with Neptune and the half-naked Amphitrite on the shell chariot to their wedding as a classical composition inspired by the Old Masters. The chariot is pulled by two water horses and accompanied by a triton blowing a horn in the foreground and several putti. The sheet, which is not quite finished, is captivating for its spontaneity of drawing, with which the event is sketchily captured - the various virtuoso drawing materials used, such as pen, brush, black and red chalk, provide a unique insight into the artist's working method. The sheet is related to Thomas's large-format painting Neptunszug (Neptune's Train), painted in 1879, which was in the possession of Kommerzienrat A. Pfeilstücker in Freiburg in Thode's time but is now lost. Thoma's drawing is not so much a final preliminary drawing as a first sketch of ideas for the composition; other drafts for the painting, which are also not yet final, are probably two sheets that match in technique - one was formerly in the possession of the art dealer Victor Rheims, while the other was recently offered in the art trade. Thoma used it years later, in 1912 and 1913, as a model for his etching Neptunszug. (Text: Peter Prange)

Provenance:

Keywords: Neptune, Nereids, Trident, Ross, Sea, Sepia, Drawing, Sepia, 19th century, Symbolism, Mythology, Germany,