Gabriel von Max
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Gabriel Cornelius Ritter von Max (August 23, 1840, Prague - November 24, 1915, München) was a Prague-born Austrian painter. His themes were parapsychology, mysticism, and monkeys, with which he surrounded himself and painted often, sometimes portraying them as human.
Career and life
He was born Gabriel Cornelius Max, the son of Czech sculptor Joseph Max and Anna Schumann. He studied between 1855 and 1858 at the Prague Academy of Arts with Eduard von Engerth. His studies included parapsychology (somnambulism, hypnotism, spiritism), Darwinism, asiatic philosophy, the ideas of Schopenhauer, and various mystical traditions. The spiritual-mystical movement was emphasized by the writings of Carl du Prels, and the Munich painter Albert von Keller was also an influence.
The first large canvas was painted in 1858 while he student at the Prague Academy. He continued his studies at the Viennese Academy of Art with Karl von Blaas, Karl Mayer, Christian Ruben and Carl Wurzinger. From 1863 to 1867 he studied at the Munich Academy with Karl Theodor von Piloty, and also Hans Makart and Franz Defregger. His first critical success was in 1867 with the painting "Martyr at the Cross": that painting transformed the "Unglücksmalerei" (dark palette) of Piloty into a religious-mystical symbolism using a psychological rendering of its subject.
Well into the 1870s, Gabriel von Max was influenced by the dark palette of the Piloty school. Later, Max used clear and fewer colors, moving toward a more muted palette. Gabriel Max made serious anthropological or psychological studies and owned a large scientific collection of prehistoric ethnological and anthropological finds: the collection now resides in the Stadtischen Reiss Museum in Mannheim. From 1869, Gabriel von Max had his studio in Munich; in the summer, he was in the Ammerland at Starnberger Lake. From 1879-1883, Gabriel Max was a professor of Historical Painting at the Munich Academy; he also became a Fellow of The Theosophical Society. In 1900 he was ennobled and became a Ritter.
Gabriel von Max was a significant artist to emerge from the Piloty School, because he abandoned the themes of the Grunderzeitliche (genre and history), in order to develop an allegorical-mystical pictorial language, which became typical of Secessionist Art. His interest in anthropological studies also showed in his work. At his residence in Starnberger Lake, Gabriel Max surrounded himself with a family of monkeys, which he painted often, sometimes portraying them as human. Max, along with his colleagues, often used photographs to guide painting. The great number of monkey photographs in his archive testify to their use as direct translation into his paintings. Characteristic of the ethereal style of Gabriel Max is "The Last Token" (in the Metropolitan Museum).
