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Description
‘Adam und Eva (‘Adam and Eve’)
‘The Woman as the ultimate corruptor, the seductress of man’.
Other than in biblical history, Von Stuck has depicted the Woman not as instrument of the Devil, but the Devel (the snake) is functioning here as instrument of the Woman.
Relief in bronze.
Size 73 x 69 x 3,5 cm.
Created 1892-1910.
The relief adorned the garden facade of the ‘Villa Keller’ in the district Bogenhausen of Munich. Villa Keller was built in 1910; below a photo of the relief at the façade around 1950.
No other casts in bronze are known to exist.
The bronze relief is published in ‘Die Kraft des Mannes und die weiche Schmiegsamkeit des Weibes, -Franz von Stuck’ by Thomas Raff, 2013.
Offered by Christie’s in May 2013.
Two related plaster casts, around 1892, showed up at auctions in the last three decades.
Left: the bronze relief by Von Stuck, published in ‘Die Kraft des Mannes und die weiche Schmiegsamkeit des Weibes, -Franz von Stuck’ by Thomas Raff, 2013, page 37.
Right: the bronze relief depicted and described in the cataloge of the auction ’19th Century European Art’ , 22 May 2013, by Christie’s. 
‘Villa Keller’, around 1950. At the left the relief on the facade.
Left: Franz von Stuck, ‘Adam and Eve’, plastercast, 1892. Size 74 x 70 cm. Sold by Sotheby’s in 2005.
Right: Franz von Stuck, ‘Versuchung’ (‘Seduction’), plastercast. Size 74 x 70 cm. Sold by auction house Van Ham in November 2002. 
Left: plaster relief ‘Adam und Eva’, depicted in ‘Fanz Stuck’ by Otto Julius Bierbaum, München, 1893. The photo is based on another photo produced by ‘Münchener Kunst – und Verlag-Anstalt Dr. E. Albrecht & Co and signed ‘1892’ (Stuck-Nachlass).
Right: plaster cast, before 1893, in the atelier of Franz Stuck, depicted in ‘Fanz Stuck’ by Otto Julius Bierbaum, München, 1893. 
| – condition | : II |
| – size | :73 x 69 x 3,5 cm |
| – signed | : right, below |
| – type | : bronze |
| – weight | : |
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BIOGRAPHY: FRANZ VON STUCK
Left: Franz von Stuck, ‘Adam und Eva’, around 1920. Size 98 x 94 cm. In the possession of the Städel Museum, Frankfurt.
Right: Franz von Stuck, ‘Judith and Holofernes’, 1927.
Left: Franz von Stuck, ‘Die Sinnlichkeit’ (‘The Lust’), signed etching, around 1891. Depicted in ‘Die Grafischen Künste’, 1903, Vienna. A copy (22 x 18 cm) is in the possession of the National Gallery of Canada.
Right: Franz von Stuck, ‘Die Sünde’ (‘The Sin’), around 1891. Oil on canvas. Size 51 x 36 cm. Sold by Christies in 2010. 
Left: Franz von Stuck, ‘Sisiphus’, 1920. Size 103 x 89 cm. In the possession of Galerei Ritthaler, Munich. Depicted in ‘Kunst dem Volk’, April 1942.
Right: Franz von Stuck, ‘Der Wein’ (‘The Wine’), 1889. Depicted in the exhibition catalog ‘Franz von Stuck, -Museum Villa Stuck 22. Juli – 31. Oktober 1982’.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Der Krieg’ (‘The War’), 1894, depicted in ‘Kunst dem Volk’, April 1942.
‘Der Krieg’ by Von Stuck, depicted in the exhibition catalog ‘Franz von Stuck, -Museum Villa Stuck 22. Juli – 31. Oktober 1982’.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Verwundete Amazone’ (‘Wounded Amazone’), depicted in ‘Kunst dem Volk’, April 1942.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Lucifer’, completed in 1890. Size 161 x 153 cm. Bought by Ferdinand I of Bulgaria for the royal collection in Sofia, from Stuck’s studio in Munich in 1891. On December 25, 1930, King Boris III added it to the National Museum and from 1948 it was part of the National Art Gallery. In 1985 it was transferred to the National Gallery for Foreign Art.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Sphinx’, 1889.
Left: ‘Sphinx’, part of a shrine at the entrance of the Museum Wiesbaden.
Right: de picted in ‘Kunst für alle’, 1903.
Left: Franz von Stuck, ‘Medusa’. Before 1893. Depicted in ‘Fanz Stuck’ by Otto Julius Bierbaum, München, 1893.
Right: Franz von Stuck, ‘Versuchung’ (‘Seduction’), before 1893. Depicted in ‘Fanz Stuck’ by Otto Julius Bierbaum, München, 1893.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Die Wilde Jagt’ (‘Wild Chase’), 1889. Size 84 x 53 cm. In the possession of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Der Kampf um die Frau’ (‘Fighting for a Woman’), 1905. Size 117 x 90 cm. In the possession of the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Die Drei Göttinnen. Athena, Hera, Aphrodite’ (‘The Three Goddesses. Athena, Hera, Aphrodite’), 1922. Depicted in the exhibition catalog ‘Franz von Stuck, -Museum Villa Stuck 22. Juli – 31. Oktober 1982’.
Hitler and Franz von Stuck
Franz von Stuck who died in 1928, did not play a rol in the National Socialist movement, nor in Nazi-Germany. Nevertheless, he became one of the favorit artist of Hitler, who bought in the 1930s ‘Die Sünde’, which he hung in his Munich appartement in the Prinzregentenstrasse. In 1940 Hitler acquired ‘Siren with a Harp’. Hitler also possessed a cast of ‘Feinde Ringsum’, located in his working room in the Reich Chancellery. He acquired in total 42 works by Franz von Stuck, which were destinated for the Führermuseum in Linz.
Hermann Göring aquired a more than life size cast of ‘Amazone’, which he placed in the courtyard of Carinnhall (nowadays located in Park Weidendamm, Eberswalde).
The art magazin ‘Kunst dem Volk‘ published in April 1942 an 20 page article about Franz von Stuck.
Franz von Stuck in the Führermuseum
The Führermuseum, or ‘Linz art gallery’, was an unrealized art museum planned by Adolf Hitler for his hometown, the Austrian city of Linz, near his birthplace of Braunau. Its purpose was to display a selection of the art bought, confiscated or stolen by the Nazis from throughout Europe during World War II. The overall plan was to turn Linz into one of the greatest art centers of Europe, overshadowing Vienna. Hitler personally favored German and Austrian paintings from the 19th century, but the collection also contained many early German, Dutch, French, and Italian paintings. The collection, when it was whole, included 4,731 pieces, not just paintings but also tapestries, sculpture, furniture and porcelain. Beginning in February 1944, the artworks were relocated to the 14th-century Steinberg salt mines above the village of Altaussee, in which the holdings of various Viennese museums had earlier been transferred.
In total 42 works by Franz von Stuck were part of the collection of the Führermuseum (see website of the German Historical Museum, Berlin).
Franz von Stuck ‘Die Sünde’ (‘The Sin’), 1893. Size 95 x 60 cm. In the possession of the Neue Pinakothek. Bought in the 1930s by Adolf HItler, who hung the work in his Munich appartement in the Prinzregentenstrasse. 
Franz von Stuck
Left: ‘Athlet’ (‘Ahtlete’), bronze, height 65 cm. A first plaster model was exhibited at the ‘VI. Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung im Münchener Glaspalast’, 1892. First bronze was cast against the end of 1892.
Right and left: ‘Feinde Ringsum’ (‘Enemies Around’), bronze, height 72 cm. A first plaster model was exhibited at the ‘Münchener Secession-Ausstellung’, 1916. Later casts, after WWI, bear the title ‘Siegfried’. 
Left: Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler awarding U-boat commander Günther Prien (for the sinking of the Royal Oak) the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross, 18 October 1939. A the back the bronze ‘Feinde Ringsum’ by Franz von Stuck (photo: Heinrich Hoffmann).
Right: Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler awarding general Eduard Dietl the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, 20 July 1940. Same bronze by Von Stuck at the background (photo: Heinrich Hoffmann).
Left: Franz von Stuck, ‘Amazone ‘, located in the courtyard of Görings Carinshall, 1938.
Right: the same Amazone-cast, nowadays located in Park Weidendamm, Eberswalde.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Amazone’, 1936. Located in front of Villa Stuck, Prinzregentenstrasse 60, Munich. In total 4 life size casts exists, all after-life casts. 
‘Amazone’ by Von Stuck, plastercast. Displayed at the ‘Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung 1925’. Photo: opening of the Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung at 16 May 1925.
Works by Franz von Stuck at the ‘Exhibition of Contemporary German Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1909.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Verwundete Kentaur’ (‘Wounded Centaur’), bronze, 1891/93. Below a copy in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum, height 63 cm.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Beethoven’, bronze. Size 47 x 47 cm. A bronze cast was exhibited at the ‘Münchener Secessions-Ausstellung’, 1902. 
Franz von Stuck, ‘Amazone und Kentaur’, 1912. Size 60 x 53 cm. In private possession.
Franz von Stuck, ‘Kraftübung’ (‘Test of Strength’). Depicted in ‘Die Kunst für alle’, 1903.
Franz von Stuck, Selfportrait, 1905.
Franz von Stuck
Franz von Stuck (1863 – 1928), son of a miller, was an influential German Symbolist & Art Nouveau painter and sculptor. Born in Tettenweis near Passau, Stuck displayed an affinity for drawing and caricature from an early age. To begin his artistic education he relocated in 1878 to Munich, where he would settle for life. Von Stuck studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich as a pupil of Ferdinand Barth and from 1881- 1885 at the Münchner Kunstakademie under Wilhelm von Lindenschmit and Ludwig von Löfftz. He started as a graphical artist and worked as a cartoonist for the Fliegende Blätter magazine (1887-1892). Under the influence of Böcklin he turned to painting and he developed an imaginary world of mythology and symbolism in his work. Large, heavy forms dominated most of his paintings and pointed toward his proclivities for sculpture. His seductive female nudes, in the role of the femme fatale, were a prime example of popular Symbolist content. Stuck paid close attention to the frames for his paintings and generally designed them himself with such careful use of panels, gilt carving and inscriptions that the frames must be taken as an integral part of the overall piece.
In 1889 he exhibited at the Münchner Glaspalast and he won a gold medal for ‘Wächter des Paradieses’.
In 1892 Stuck co-founded the Munich Secession, and also executed his first sculpture, ‘Athlete’. The next year he won further acclaim with the critical and public success of what is now his best known work, the painting ‘The Sin’.
Also during 1893, Stuck was awarded a gold medal for painting at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and was appointed to a royal professorship. In 1895 he succeeded Wilhelm von Lindenschmit at the Academy and he influenced a new generation of painters, among them Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Hans Purrmann, Alf Bayrle and Paul Klee. From 1896 to 1891 he provided illustrations for ‘Jugend magazine’. In 1897 Stuck married an American widow, Mary Lindpainter. At the Prinzregentenstrasse in Munich (1897/1898) Stuck built himself a villa by his own design. He also designed the furniture and interior decorations, for which he received a gold medal in 1900 at the World Exhibition in Paris. The Stuck Villa is now a Jugendstil museum.
Having attained a high public profile by this time, Stuck was in 1905/06 awarded the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown (Knight’s Cross of the Order of the Bavarian Throne) and was henceforth known as Franz Ritter von Stuck. In 1909 Franz von Stuck exhibited seventeen paintings in a hall devoted to his works at the international art exhibition in Venice. He continued to be well respected among young artists as professor at the Munich Academy, even after his artistic styles became less fashionable.
Von Stuck was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. His work was also part of the sculpture event in the art competition at the 1928 Summer Olympics. Franz von Stuck died on August 30, 1928, in Munich.
Hitler and Franz von Stuck
Franz von Stuck who died in 1928, did not play a rol in the National Socialist movement, nor in Nazi-Germany. Nevertheless, he became one of the favorit artist of Hitler, who bought in the 1930s ‘Die Sünde’, which he hung in his Munich appartement in the Prinzregentenstrasse. In 1940 Hitler acquired ‘Siren with a Harp’. Hitler also possessed a cast of ‘Feinde Ringsum’, located in his working room in the Reich Chancellery. He acquired in total 42 works by Franz von Stuck, which were destinated for the Führermuseum in Linz.
Hermann Göring aquired a more than life size cast of ‘Amazone’, which he placed in the courtyard of Carinnhall (nowadays located in Park Weidendamm, Eberswalde). The art magazin ‘Kunst dem Volk‘ published in April 1942 an 20 page article about Franz von Stuck.
Franz von Stuck in the Führermuseum
The Führermuseum, or ‘Linz art gallery’, was an unrealized art museum planned by Adolf Hitler for his hometown, the Austrian city of Linz, near his birthplace of Braunau. Its purpose was to display a selection of the art bought, confiscated or stolen by the Nazis from throughout Europe during World War II. The overall plan was to turn Linz into one of the greatest art centers of Europe, overshadowing Vienna. Hitler personally favored German and Austrian paintings from the 19th century, but the collection also contained many early German, Dutch, French, and Italian paintings. The collection, when it was whole, included 4,731 pieces, not just paintings but also tapestries, sculpture, furniture and porcelain. Beginning in February 1944, the artworks were relocated to the 14th-century Steinberg salt mines above the village of Altaussee, in which the holdings of various Viennese museums had earlier been transferred.
In total 42 works by Franz von Stuck were part of the collection of the Führermuseum (see website of the German Historical Museum, Berlin).