Paul Friedrich Meyerheim

Sale: Sotheby's, New York, April 24, 2002, lot 81, illustrated
Private collection (acquired at the above sale and sold, Sotheby's, New York, April 18, 2008, lot 94, illustrated)
Acquired at the above sale

Franz Hermann Meissner, "Paul Meyerheim," The Art Journal, London, 1895, p. 304, illustrated p. 301

The work is lined. The surface is clean and the colors remain vibrant and fresh. Fine but almost imperceptible craquelure and a small area of frame abrasion along the right edge. Under UV: the old green varnish has been selectively cleaned and the fluoresces unevenly. Scattered, finely applied dots and dashes of retouching are visible on the figures and throughout the background. The work presents well.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Paul Meyerheim hailed from a well-known family of German painters, going back to his grandfather Karl Friedrich. Paul studied under his father Friedrich Eduard, who taught at the Berliner Akademie, before travelling widely in Germany, Tyrol, Switzerland and Holland, and spending a year in Paris. His itinerant lifestyle is reflected in the subject of many of his paintings, including the travelling circus featured in the present work, The Wild Madonna.

Circus performers were a popular subject among artists and both the joy of the spectacle and the often challenging life “behind the scenes” were easily understood by audiences. Meyerheim may have also been drawn to the subject in part because of his aptitude for painting animals, developed early in his career through observation at the Berlin Zoological Gardens. A contemporary review describes the work as a “splendidly depicted circus scene in which a comical equestrienne is conducting a comedy enacted by a monkey and a poodle. Their action is reflected with wonderful effect in the faces of the audience, young and old, rich and poor; and amongst these, the painter has portrayed himself, standing at the end of the row, with spectacles, and a round felt hat, his smiling face surrounded with a full beard” (The Art Journal, p. 304).