Girl at the fence, looking at a dog rose

Details

Moritz 155.

Literatur:
Eugen Diem, Josef Sperl. Ein Meister aus dem Leiblkreis, München 1955, Kat.-Nr. 170, Abb.38;
Werner Moritz, J. Sperl. 1840-1914, Rosenheim 1990, S. 155, Kat.-Nr. 155, mit Abb.

Provenienz:
Galerie Neupert, Zürich, auf dem Keilrahmen mit dem Etikett (Nr. 5253, Sperl, München, “Frau im Garten”);
Sammlung Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt (Inv.-Nr. 303), auf dem Keilrahmen mit dem Etikett;
Privatsammlung, Süddeutschland.

Description

In 1882, Sperl moved to Bad Aibling with his painter friend Wilhelm Leibl. It was a transitional period for Sperl, during which he moved further and further away from the figurative peasant genre in order to focus more intensively on the landscape. Here he depicts a young farmer’s wife in the garden, surrounded by the dense tangle of dog roses. She has plucked one of them and is looking at it with her head bowed. On the one hand, the depiction is reminiscent of the medieval type of picture of the garden of paradise and, on the other, of Flemish portraits of the 17th century, in which the figures are framed by lush garlands of flowers and are thus somewhat removed from reality.