The work depicts a young woman sitting by a forest spring, arranging her strawberry blonde hair. A fur-trimmed stole and a white dress have slid down, while her armlet with a glistening pearl scintillates seductively. Hans Canon (1829‒1885) rendered the light flesh tones of the bathing woman in a delicate and subtle manner, while the colors of the landscape recede into the background. The artist executed at least three known versions of this composition from 1872, with the present example being the most recent. The painting is testament both to the inspiration Canon derived from the Old Masters of Venetian Renaissance and Dutch Baroque painting as well as to his great technical and coloristic skills.
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Selection of Reference works
Wien 1900. Aufbruch in die Moderne, hrsg. von Hans-Peter Wipplinger, Wien 2019 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, ab 15.03.2019).
Frauenbilder – Künstlerinnen – 19. und 20. Jahrhundert. Vom Biedermeier bis zur Moderne, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold, Wien 2017 (Ausstellungsbroschüre, Leopold Museum, Wien, 07.07.2017–18.09.2017).
Körper, Gesicht, Seele. Frauenbilder vom 16. bis ins 21. Jahrhundert, hrsg. von Elisabeth Leopold, Wien 2006 (Ausst.-Kat. Leopold Museum, Wien, 09.06.2006-02.10.2006).
Franz Josef Drewes: Hans Canon (1829–1885) Werkverzeichnis und Monographie I, Hildesheim 1994.