Design for a Title Page for Sheet Music
late 19th–early 20th century
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, red gouache, corrected with white. Partially incised for transfer. Strips added at top and at right
Dimensions
12 15/16 x 10 in. (32.8 x 25.4 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Robert L. Isaacson, 1979
Accession Number
1979.674.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
Max Klinger's *Design for a Title Page Sheet Music* (late 19th– 20th century) the artist's fascination with the interplay of music, nature, and human figures during Germany's Symbolist era. A master of printmaking and drawing, Klinger blended fantastical elements with precise draftsmanship, influenced by Jugendstil's flowing lines and the macabre poetry of earlier Romantics. This preparatory sheet likely features men and women amid trees and musical instruments, evoking a harmonious, dreamlike scene suited for ornamental sheet music covers—a popular decorative format in fin-de-siècle Europe. ...
About the Artist
Max Klinger · 1857–1920
Max Klinger, born on February 18, 1857, in Leipzig to a wealthy family, emerged as one of Germany's most innovative artists across painting, sculpture, printmaking, and graphics. Demonstrating early talent, he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe in 1874 as a pupil of Karl Gussow, following his teacher to the Berlin Academy upon Gussow's appointment as director, and graduated in 1877 ...