SIMM, FRANZ XAVER1853 Vienna - 1918 Munich


Title: "Die unterbrochene Lektüre".
Date: Around 1898/99.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Measurement: 40.7 x 30cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: "F. Simm".
Frame: Original, glazed frame.
Frame and plate signed and inscribed "München" verso.
Marked on the plate "Von links zu beleuchten" ('to be illuminated from the left') and "Vervielfältigung vorbehalten" ('reproduction reserved'). Detailed instructions for inserting the glass and the artist's address on the frame.

Provenance:
Private ownership, Germany.

Franz Xaver Simm, the talented son of a church and history painter, completed the best possible artistic training. After spending five years learning the basics at the General School of Painting at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, he transferred to the class for history painting under Eduard von Engerth and Anselm Feuerbach. In 1876, Franz Xaver Simm won the Vienna Academy's Rome Prize and, with it, a two-year travelling scholarship. However, he remained in Italy for five years before first completing a commission for large murals in the Caucasian Museum in Tbilisi and then settling permanently in Munich.
Franz Simm is extraordinarily versatile, mastering various techniques and all formats. He is a sought-after illustrator (e.g. Hallberger's Goethe edition; Die fliegenden Blätter) and freelance artist who primarily creates detailed and finely painted, gallant scenes. However, he also made a name for himself with large-scale murals (Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna) and dioramas (Leipzig: 'The Interior of a Harem' and 'The Death of Emperor Wilhelm I'). In Munich, he also held a professorship at the Ladies' Academy of the Munich Artists' Association. Franz Simm also enjoyed international success, receiving a medal at the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. Works by Franz Xaver Simm are still among the leading museums and collections today.

The present painting is one of Simm's typical narrative genre paintings. 'The Interrupted Reading' thrives on the liveliness of the figures and the immediacy of their actions, but also on the grandiose craftsmanship with which Franz Simm depicts individual surfaces. The skilful juxtaposition of the slightly hazy salon atmosphere with brilliantly executed surfaces, such as the lady's white silk dress or the samovar, creates a special charm. In order to emphasise this effect, the artist has indicated on the back of the painting how it should be illuminated. The elaborate, stuccoed frame, which bears the painter's name, combines with the painting to form a complete work of art. Franz Simm painted the Aubusson carpet in the salon so that it appears to be compressed behind the frame and must, therefore, have slight folds. This little trick reinforces the impression that the viewer secretly witnesses this intimate salon scene through the frame's opening.