Alexander Rothaug (Vienna 1870-1946 Vienna)
"Am Strom der Zeit" ["By the River of Time"
view with cropped margins
circa 1912
pen in black and pencil on wafer-thin vellum paper
33 x 33 cm (sheet)
signed "ALEXANDER ROTHAUG" in black pen and ink in reverse at the bottom left
titled in pencil in the upper right margin: "Am Strom der Zeit"
handwritten notes in the left margin
measurements and markings in the margins
on brownish vellum
The Daulton Collection
Provenance:
ex coll. artist Ernst Fuchs, Vienna
Discussion:
The handwritten notes refer primarily to the implementation as an etching.
"The mythological scene shows the river of time as a raging waterfall that drags the doomed into the depths. The female figure in a thoughtful pose at the edge of the river may therefore represent the goddess Styx or one of the Horae. Numerous study sketches in the margins enrich the depiction. The Greek letters alpha and omega in the right margin refer to the beginning and the end, to the comprehensive whole, flowing through the river of time." B
For another representation of this theme in The Daulton Collection, see the painting by Hans Adolf Bühler, "The Eternal Stream" ["Der ewige Strom"], 1921.
