A Wood Nymph
Originally hanging in the Morning Room, this painting was produced when the Austrian-born artist was at his peak, producing landscapes and genre paintings in the manner of the Munich School to which he contributed significantly, both as an artist and teacher at the Munich Academy. He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897.
In this painting, Pötzelberger unusually treats a mythological subject in a contemporary fashion. The scene’s realistically depicted woodland setting displays the artist’s thorough knowledge of northern European landscape tradition, while the well-modelled reclining figure of the nymph, evenly lit by a soft veiled light typical of Pötzelberger’s work of this period, displays the merits of his classical training as a draughtsman.
