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ONLINECOLLECTION

Memorial Work for My Bride Who Died in 1903, 1903

Leopold Museum,
Vienna
India ink, pen, watercolor, spray technique on cadastral paper
38.1×31.3 cm

Artists

  • Alfred Kubin

    (Litoměřice 1877–1959 Zwickledt)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
In his 1903 India ink drawing Memorial Work for My Bride Who Died in 1903, the Austrian draftsman, graphic artist, painter and writer Alfred Kubin (1877–1959) presents a mysterious, touching and oppressive image that seems almost frozen: In a crypt-like room with bare, high walls and a floor paved with big polygonal stone or terracotta tiles, a figure shrouded in a wide garment of white decorated with a dark pattern is sitting on a high sarcophagus with a steep, roof-like lid positioned at the center of the hall. The figure is turned to the side, averting her face from the observers. A lamp hanging from the ceiling in the background is illuminating the room in a pale light. All we see is the back of the figure’s dark head, the fabric of a cloak flowing over the coffin and a veil pouring out from under the cloak, carefully arranged and ending in two half-round arches in the center of the room. The figure is Kubin’s great love, Emmy Bayer, whom he had wanted to marry but who fell ill while visiting Kubin in Munich in 1903 and died ten days later: “As I stood next to the body, I realized all of a sudden that for me the highest bliss had vanished for all times,” the artist related.

Object data

Artist/author
  • Alfred Kubin
Title
Memorial Work for My Bride Who Died in 1903
Date
1903
Art movement
Symbolism
Category
Graphic work
Material​/technique
India ink, pen, watercolor, spray technique on cadastral paper
Dimensions
38.1×31.3 cm
Signature
Signed lower right: Kubin; designated lower left: Gedenkblatt für meine 1903 verstorbene Braut
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 1028
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
  • Alfred Kubin. Bekenntnisse einer gequälten Seele, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Köln 2022 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 16.04.2022–24.07.2022).
  • Alfred Kubin. Aus meinem Reich. Meisterblätter aus dem Leopold Museum, hrsg. von Rudolf Leopold/Romana Schuler, Wien 2002 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 05.10.2002-06.01.2003).
Keywords

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Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i

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