Happening
Max Klinger
(German, 1857–1920)
Friedrich Felsing
(German, active 1880s)
1880-1881; published 1882
Medium/TechniqueEtching and aquatint
DimensionsHeight x width: 54.2 × 72.5 cm (21 5/16 × 28 9/16 in.)
Credit LineKatherine E. Bullard Fund in memory of Francis Bullard
Accession number2021.288.2
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPrints
DescriptionThis print portfolio ranks among the most important works of German symbolism by one of the avant-garde’s leading artists, Max Klinger. The imagery traces a dream-like narrative of obsession with a woman and her glove. The subject has roots in Romantic literature, for example the stories of E.T.A. Hoffman, as well as descriptions of modern fashion by such writers as Octave Uzanne. It anticipates the work of Sigmund Freud on fetish objects.
Provenance2020, sold from a private collection, Cologne, to Gillis Goldman Fine Art, Brussels; 2021, sold by Gillis Goldman to the MFA. (Accession Date: April 14, 2021)