Franz von Stuck (1863-1928)

"Studienkopf" ["Head Study"] (Portrait of a Young Woman, possibly Anna Maria Brandmaier)

circa 1890-93

charcoal and white chalk or pastel on paper

47 x 43 cm (sheet)

signed on right: "F. STUCK"

verso, signed again and inscribed and titled by the artist: "FRANZ STUCK   MÜNCHEN  'STUDIENKOPF'"

verso, also numbered and signed in pencil: "Nr. 2[??] Alfred [?] [indecipherable]" 

frame by the sculptor, gilder, and framemaker Hans Irlbacher, Munich (label fragment verso), who framed many works for Franz Stuck

The Daulton Collection

On verso, there is the fragment of an exhibition label "Münchener Secession."  Presumably, this drawing was included in one of the exhibitions of the Munich Secession, probably in 1893 or 1894.

In his catalogue raisonné of Franz von Stuck, Heinrich Voss records another drawing of the same sitter; see Voss 71/421, "Weibliches Porträt (um 1892)."  A third portrait of her appears at Voss 85/413, "Weiblicher Studienkopf zur Sünde (um 1893)" ["Female Study for Sin"].  Therefore, our unidentified sitter may be Anna Maria Brandmaier (1875-1944), who was the model for his 1893 iconic symbolist painting "Die Sünde" ["The Sin"] and with whom he fathered his beloved out-of-wedlock daughter Mary.