Faber Du Faur, Otto von (1828-1901), Man sitting in the studio

Adolph Eduard Otto von Faber du Faur(1828 Ludwigsburg - 1901 Munich), Man sitting in the studio. Watercolour painting, 43 x 27 cm (visible size), 73 x 53 cm (frame), monogrammed at lower right, estate stamp.

- Thinking about art -

The sitter, an elderly man, is seated in a studio on a pedestal reminiscent of an academy hall. The earthy, dark tones give the scene a weighty quality. The lightest tones are found in the incarnate parts of the figure, which do not stand out from the other colours of the picture, but are linked to them. As a result, the sitter's face is both part of and the highlight of the colour references in the picture. The colour of the sitter's skin is reflected in his pink coat, while his white-grey hair matches the colour of the wall next to him. This almost monochrome wall surface, in turn, is connected across the portrait to the framed picture standing on the floor, which seems to have been erased by this correspondence with the empty wall surface. Through the palette, which is positioned directly behind the sitter's head, the reference to painting, which is already given by the studio space, is explicitly linked to the sitter, who thus seems to be contemplating the question of the meaning of art.
This raises the question of whether Faber Du Faur, who had become lonely in his old age, might have painted a self-portrait here in his later years. In addition to the studio setting, the sitter's explicit reference to the palette and the fact that the picture was part of his estate, the only summary elaboration of the body suggests a self-portrait, while the representation of the face is concretised with the wide-open eyes typical of a self-portrait. This concentration on the face gives the impression of the artist's melancholy introspection, captured by the palette and related to the meaning of painting, whose dark character is reinforced by the concealment of the palette hanging on the right of the picture in the light tones so characteristic of Faber Du Faur. In the course of this resignation, Faber du Faur advises his son Hans, who has also become a painter: "Promise me one thing: never move to Munich, they'll kill you here!"
Whoever the sitter may be, the references to painting make the portrait a resigned self-contemplation by Faber Du Faur, focused on art.

About the artist

After leaving school, Otto Faber du Faur entered the service of the Württemberg army, at the same time cultivating his artistic talent. In 1851, on the recommendation of his father Christian Wilhelm, who was himself a battle painter, he spent six months in Munich as an apprentice to Alexander von Kotzebue. In 1852 he was granted a year's leave of absence from military service to study battle painting in the studio of Adolphe Yvon in Paris, where he received a scholarship from the Württemberg royal family. In Paris, he was inspired by the paintings of Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix. On further study trips to Paris, Faber Du Faur also became acquainted with the art of Gustave Courbet, Théodore Rousseau and Adolphe Monticelli. In 1867, he resigned from the army to devote himself entirely to art. In 1869 he became a pupil of Karl von Piloty at the Munich Academy, one of the most innovative history painters of his time. In the 1970s, he was commissioned by the royal house of Württemberg to produce several large paintings that established Faber Du Faur's reputation as one of Germany's leading battle painters. The great success of his panorama 'The Siege of Paris', which was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1878, led to the production of a large number of panoramas, which were gradually painted and exhibited in various large cities. In 1880, Faber Du Faur undertook a study trip to Tunis, followed by a six-month stay in Morocco in 1883, which led to a marked brightening of his palette and a more expressive use of colour. A development that he continued on his travels to Spain, but which made him an outsider who died in obscurity in Munich in 1901. The quality of his art was only rediscovered and appreciated posthumously: four of his works were shown at the Venice Biennale in 1903 and, as a temporary high point, a major monographic exhibition of 160 of his paintings was held at the National Gallery in Berlin in 1927.

His correspondence with his painter friend Carl von Häberlin, which gives an insight into his work, is in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart.

Selection of public collections that own works by Otto von Faber du Faur:

Bayerisches Armeemuseum Ingolstadt , Kunstmuseum Stuttgart , Galleria d’Arte Moderna Triest , Lenbachhaus München , Nationalgalerie Berlin , Neue Pinakothek München , Staatsgalerie Regensburg , Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.

Selected Bibliography

Theodor Musper: Schwäbische Lebensbilder, Stuttgart 1941.

Peter Wilhelm Pech: Carl von Häberlin, Tübingen 1982.

Julius Fekete: Carl von Häberlin und die Stuttgarter Historienmaler seiner Zeit, Sigmaringen 1986.

Claus Zoege von Manteuffel (Hg.): Kunst und Künstler in Württemberg, Stuttgart 1996.

Gertrud Seizinger: Otto von Faber du Faur. Studien zu den Arbeiten in Öl, Stuttgart 2010.