The Man of Passion, a large and exquisite etching of Christ crowned with thorns, engraved by Daniel Friedemann Fuchs (Austrian, b. 1950) in 1974, on wove paper, signed lower right and numbered artist's edition 10/10 lower left.

Provenance

Sir John Richardson (1924–2019), New York
Stair Galleries, 17 Sep 2020, lot 386. Unframed.

Sir John Richardson (1924–2019) was one of the most distinguished art historians and connoisseurs of the twentieth century, best known for his monumental, multi-volume biography of Pablo Picasso, A Life of Picasso. A close friend of the artist himself, Richardson possessed an intimacy with the Cubist circle that lent his scholarship rare authority and personal texture. His collection reflected both the breadth of his aesthetic sensibility and the depth of his personal connections — encompassing works that passed between friends, studios, and salons at the very heart of the modernist moment. Richardson lived and collected with an eye shaped equally by rigorous scholarship and bohemian adventurousness, having moved in the worlds of Picasso, Douglas Cooper, and the great Anglophone expatriate milieu of postwar Europe. His objects carried lives with them.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

The Artist

Daniel Friedemann Fuchs was born in Vienna in 1950 to an artistic family. His father, Ernst Fuchs (1930–2015), was a famous painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, architect, stage designer, composer, poet, and one of the founders of the Vienna School of Fantastic Realism. Friedemann went on to study art in Germany and Vienna and was greatly influenced by surrealism as well as historical symbolism. An atheist himself, Friedemann is nonetheless well versed in the concepts of Christian and pagan religions and finds inspiration in their influence on modern life. He signed his works as Daniel Fuchs until circa 1985, when he began using his middle name, Friedemann, as his artist name.
According to the artist's website, The Man of Passion was created in 1974. The distorted features of Christ, walking on water and carefully stepping onto seashells, recall the late Medieval style of 14th- and 15th-century engravings that were likewise packed with symbolism. Through distortion and symbolism, the Medieval style fuses with the modern surrealism that greatly inspired Friedemann in the 1970s. It is interesting to note that his father Ernst Fuchs was working in the Medieval style around the same period.

Dimensions

Full size: 53 cm by 75.5 cm (21 in by 29.75 in)
Plate size: 31.5 cm by 49.5 cm (12.4 in by 19.5 in)

Condition

Excellent condition. Can be framed upon request to buyer's specifications.