Fidus (Luebeck 1868-1948 Woltersdorf bei Berlin), also known as Hugo Hoeppener

"Genoveva," also known as "Verlassen" ["Abandonment"]

1890

watercolor and pencil on paper, mounted on cardboard with a border hand-painted by the artist and original frame

70 x 82 cm

lower right signed and dated "Fidus - 1890"

verso also signed "Fidus" and inscribed

In the oeuvre of Fidus, there is a related oil painting of this composition, titled "Verlassen" ["Abandoned"] and dating from 1894, current whereabouts unknown.  Of this oil painting, Fidus wrote on a later postcard reproduction: “Mein erstes Selbständiges Ölgemälde nach meine Münchens Diefenbach-Zeit" [“My first independent oil painting after my Diefenbach time in Munich"].  Karlheinz Auberger, Fidus aus Privat-Sammlungen, 2018, online exhibition catalog of vintage postcards from the private collection of the Karlheinz Auberger family, Munich, Fidus-Museum.org, pg. 11.  Auberger opines that the title of the painting, "Verlassen" ["Abandonment" or "Leaving"], may relate to the departure of Fidus from the Diefenbach commune.  Ibid.

Publication History:

Wilhelm Hubbe-Schleiden, "Das Leben als Lust, geläutert durch Leid und Liebe" ["Life as Pleasure, Purified Through Suffering and Love"], Sphinx XI, 66 (June 1891), pp. 348-360, ill. between pages 352 and 353 with caption "Lied" ["Suffering"].