Female Nude “Helen of Troy“, c. 1919

The glazed ceramic sculpture shows a feminine nude figure with a cloak, with her left foot standing on a helmet – a clear reference to the mythological figure Helen of Troy and to the Trojan War. The motive is one of the early works by Michael Powolny (1871–1954), who found the Wiener Keramik [Viennese Ceramic] with Bertold Löffler (1874–1960) whose distribution was taken over by the Wiener Werkstätte after only about a year.
An unglazed version of Helen of Troy* from 1906 can also be found in the Leopold Museum’s Collection.
The design was created in the artistic environment of the Wiener Secession, with which Powolny had been associated since his student days at art school. He shared a close friendship and a fruitful cooperation with Josef Hoffmann (1870–1956), whom he had met there.

MSch, 2025