Wolfrom, Friedrich Ernst (1857-1923), Bust of a woman in a medallion, 1904

Friedrich Ernst Wolfrom(1857 Magdeburg - 1923 Berlin). Woman's Head in a Medallion , 1904. Oil on painting cardboard, 55.5 x 42 cm (visible size), 72 x 62 cm (frame), signed and dated F. E. WOLFROM 1904.

- minor flaking and clouding

- Femme Fatale -

The slight lower view lends the woman's head a majestic air that at the same time holds something mysterious, which is expressed in the deep dark eyes as well as in the black twirls of curls. The mysterious is paired with the charming, which is expressed in the smile and the low-cut décolleté. The symbiosis of power and Eros is reminiscent of a Judith or Salome, so that this is less a portrait of a real person than of a role or ideal, especially as the medallion form lends the depiction a monumental character.
The combination of a plump lust for life and abysmal fatality, which was also decisive for the oeuvre of Wolfrom's teacher Hans Makart and the symbolist-oriented Art Nouveau, is particularly evident at the level of colour: while the diffuse black of the background is present in the eyes and the hair, the clothing is combined with the pale greenish-yellow so typical, which condenses into an intrinsic glow in the middle of the picture's background, only to burst into full life in the incarnate parts of the sitter.
The history painter Wolfrom succeeds in embedding a narrative dimension in the portrait, the content of which is fed by the major themes of Viennese Symbolist Art Nouveau, which Wolfrom brings to Berlin.

About the artists

Friedrich Ernst Wolfrom began studying at the Munich Art Academy in 1875, where he met Franz von Lenbach. From Munich he went to Julius Hübner at the Dresden Art Academy and followed Hans Makart to Vienna in 1881. After Makart's death, Wolfrom went to Dresden via Munich and finally settled permanently in Berlin in 1892. In 1900 he was commissioned to paint the Bundesrat Hall in the Reichstag building in Berlin, which has since been destroyed.

Selected bibliography

Friedrich von Boetticher: Malerwerke des 19. Jahrhunderts, Bd.II,2, Dresden 1901.

Maximilian Rapsilber: Friedrich Ernst Wolfrom. Ein Gedenkblatt zum 50. Geburtstag des Künstlers, Berlin 1907.