FRANZ VON LENBACH (GERMAN 1836 - 1904)
PORTRAIT OF THE ACTRESS MAXINE ELLIOT

oil on canvas
framed
together with a preparatory charcoal sketch, also framed and under glass measuring 112cm x 85cm overall

(u2)

image size 196cm x 75cm, overall size 128cm x 98cm

Note: Franz von Lenbach was born on December 13, 1836, in Schrobenhausen, Bavaria. The son of a mason, he trained at Landshut Technical College with the intention of pursuing his father's trade. In 1851 he began working in Munich in Anselm Sickinger’s sculpture studio. Through his older brother, Karl August Lenbach, he met Johann Baptist Hofner, an artist who had trained at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts, who formally introduced him to drawing and painting. Having attended the Augsburg Polytechnic for two semesters, between 1852 and 1853, and working for a few months in Albert Gräfle’s studio, Lenbach enrolled in the Munich Akademie in 1854. In 1857 he became a pupil of Karl Theodor von Piloty, an artist famed for his history paintings. The following year, with the help of a scholarship, he accompanied Piloty on a trip to Rome, along with Carl Ebert, Ferdinand von Piloty, and Theodor Schüz. In Italy he made several oil and pencil sketches that would inspire such famous paintings as L’arco di Tito (1860), finished upon his return to Munich. From 1860 onward, he started teaching at the Weimar Art School and devoted himself to reproducing Old Master works on commission for Count Adolf Friedrich Graf von Schack. His work as a copyist took him back to Italy as well as Spain, Vienna, and Berlin. At the end of the 1860s, he settled in Munich and became internationally successful thanks to the many portraits he painted of society personalities of the time, including Otto von Bismarck, Peggy Guggenheim, Franz Liszt, and Richard Wagner. At the beginning of the 1870s, he substituted his previous bright palette with darker tones and started using light more effectively, especially in his portraits. His style went on to have a remarkable influence on the art of the time. In 1882 Lenbach was granted nobility, and in 1900 he won the Grand Prix for painting in Paris. He died in Munich on May 6, 1904.
Note 2: Maxine Elliott was born Jessie Dermott, in 1868 to a Rockland, Maine, sea captain. She went to New York as a young woman and married comedian Nat Goodwin. Maxine’s beauty and acting abilities led to a 30-year career as a stage actress, and she skyrocketed to fame. For a time, she also operated a New York theater branded with her name, “Maxine Elliot’s Theatre.” Maxine’s life was a wild one. Her intimates included J.P. Morgan, British King Edward VII and Charlie Chaplin, among many others. In 1913 she began dating New Zealand tennis star Anthony Wilding. During World War I she donated her money and her time to Belgian war relief. But Wilding was killed in the war. By 1920, Maxine’s talent, and some help from her wealthy friends, had left her with no need for more money. She retired to a Mediterranean estate in Cannes, France. She wished to age gracefully at her home, Château de l’Horizon. A white art deco villa, it featured a large terrace and a long slide to drop her and her guests from the swimming pool into the sea. Large parties of libertines assembled at Maxine Elliott’s French estate, and it became notorious. Winston Churchill visited from 1933 to 1939. Winston’s wife Clementine had little use for Château de l’Horizon or Maxine and her friends. Clementine viewed them as gossipy and frivolous. Maxine Elliot/Jessie Dermott died at her French estate in 1940 at age 72, far from her Rockland, Maine, beginnings. Her estate now belongs to the Saudi royal family.