Background
Gabriel von Max was born on August 23, 1840 in Prague, Czech Republic. The son of the sculptor Josef Max and Anna Schumann.
Gabriel von Max was born on August 23, 1840 in Prague, Czech Republic. The son of the sculptor Josef Max and Anna Schumann.
Gabriel von Max studied between 1855 and 1858 at the Prague Academy of Arts (now the Academy of Fine Arts) with Eduard von Engerth. His studies included parapsychology (somnambulism, hypnotism, spiritism), Darwinism, Asiatic philosophy, the ideas of Schopenhauer and various mystical traditions. His first large canvas was painted in 1858 while he was a student at the Prague Academy.
He continued his studies at the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts with Karl von Blaas and Christian Ruben. From 1863 to 1867 Gabriel von Max studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Karl Theodor von Piloty, Hans Makart and Franz Defregger.
Gabriel von Max painted his first large canvas in 1858. However, his first critical success was in 1867 with the painting "Martyr at the Cross" which transformed the "Unglücksmalerei" (dark palette) of Karl Theodor von Piloty into a religious-mystical symbolism using a psychological rendering of its subject.
Gabriel von Max continued to use the dark palette of the Piloty school well into the 1870s, later moving toward a more muted palette, using fewer, clearer colors. Gabriel von Max had his studio in Munich from 1869; in the summer he was in the Ammerland at Starnberger Lake. In 1879-1883 he was a professor of Historical Painting at the Munich Academy.
Besides, he had an interest in anthropological studies that also showed in his work. He owned a large scientific collection of prehistoric ethnological and anthropological finds.
Moreover, at his residence in Starnberger Lake, Gabriel von Max surrounded himself with a family of monkeys, which he painted often, sometimes portraying them as human. Max, along with his colleagues, often used photographs to guide painting. The great number of monkey photographs in his archive testify to their use as direct translation into his paintings. In 1908 his painting "The Lion's Bride" became celebrated, and was depicted in motion pictures as an hommage in the Gloria Swanson film, "Male and Female" (1919).
Gabriel von Max worked in an allegorical-mystical pictorial language, which became typical of Secessionist Art. Characteristic of the ethereal style of Gabriel Max is "The Last Token" (in the Metropolitan Museum), and "Light" (in the Odessa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, Ukraine).
Gabriel von Max died on November 24, 1915 in Munich, Germany.
Monkey before skeleton
Findelkind
Temperance
Still Life (Girl at a Spinet)
Saint Julia (Crucified Martyress)
Mutter mit Kind
The Ecstatic Virgin Anna Katharina Emmerich
Monkeys and painting
The Anatomist 1869
Model Laura
Clairvoyant-Veritas (The clairvoyant truth)
Last Performance
The Sisters
Renunciation
Abelard and Heloise
The Seeress of Prevorst
Ophelia
Monkeys as Judges of Art
The Murderess of a Child 1877
Bitter Experience
The Raising of the Daughter of Jairus
Woman with Flowers in Her Hair
Schmerzvergessen
Light
Blonde Frau
Monkey playing pianoforte
Monkeys doll
The white woman 1900
Tannhäuser
Monkeys at the Piano
Oh Man, Take Heed 1895
Monkey
Monkey with Pitcher
Gabriel von Max was a Fellow of the Theosophical Society.