Lot 177: FRANZ METZNER

1917

signed FRANZ METZER, dated, numbered 18 and with foundry mark RM

patinated bronze

10 1/2 in. (26.7 cm) high

PROPERTY OF J. JONATHAN JOSEPH

Estate of Dr. Leo Alexander

The artist bequeathed another example of this model to the Ostdeutsche Galerie in Regensburg, and it is currently on exhibit at the Egerland Kunstgalerie in Marktredwitz, Germany.

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The sculptor and painter Franz Metzner (1870-1919) made these five small bronze sculptures as part of a series intended for private collectors during the last five years of his life. They exemplify the late formal renewal of an artist who had been closely associated with the Austrian and German Jugendstil movement most of his artistic career and rank among Metzner's best work dating from this time period.

In an effort to successfully build on his Jugendstil past, around 1914, Metzner created a modern interpretation of sculpture with a focus on small-scale, intimate works characterized by rough surface texture and a decreasing attention to detail. Movement and volume, always important components in his pieces, now receive even greater emphasis and lend these sculptures an unusual degree of liveliness and rhythm.

Metzner was never formally educated as a sculptor. After an apprenticeship with a stonemason, he mostly developed his artistic skills through self-study. From 1894 to 1903, the young Metzner lived and worked in Berlin, where he soon designed porcelain for the Berliner Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur (KPM). There, he also began to explore his interest in sculpture. His achievements were recognized early on by the editor Alexander Koch, who published Metzner's work in the magazine Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration.

In 1903, Metzner followed the call of the Wiener Kunstgewerbeschule and moved to Vienna to teach at the City's premiere school of applied arts side-by-side with Josef Hoffmann and Koloman Moser. He joined the Vienna Secession and collaborated with the Wiener Werkstätte on several projects, including the St. Louis World Exhibition of 1904 and the 1908 Kunstschau in Vienna, where two rooms were dedicated to his sculptures alone. He had a close relationship with Hoffmann, who even designed interiors and furniture for the Metzner household.

From 1905 to 1911, together with such Jugendstil luminaries as Gustav Klimt, Michael Powolny, and Koloman Moser, Metzner participated in the completion of Hoffmann's foremost Gesamtkunstwerk in Brussels: the Palais Stoclet. His contribution comprises the four heroic male bronze figures that crown the central tower of the building and a relief panel of two female flower bearers in sacrificial poses that are set within the space between the central window pane and the basement window.

While working on the Palais Stoclet, Metzner was invited to create the sculptural program for a monument in Leipzig and moved back to Berlin in 1906. Fully integrated in the Prussian art scene by 1914, he became the most important Berlin Secession sculptor in the circle around Lovis Corinth.

The sculptures offered here were acquired from the estate of Dr. Leo Alexander, a Viennese psychiatrist, who moved to the United States in 1935.

--Martina Grünewald