THEODOR BAIERL (1881-1932) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »
MUNICH SECESSION (1892-1913) - Receive artist alerts » - More items from this artist »

Oil on panel

Signed

27.00cm wide    60.00cm high    (10.63 inches wide  23.62 inches high)

Bruno Baierl, the artist's son; given in lieu of funds borrowed to J H Hopwood 1938-39
By descent in the family
Purchased directly from the family in 1998
By descent in the family
Purchased directly from the family in 1998

Richard Braungart, Theodor Baierl, Die Kunst für Alle, number 39 1923-4, pages 166-173

Until the First World War, Theodor Baierl received regular commissions from the Church for frescoes, altar paintings and Stations of the Cross in numerous South German towns, including Augsburg, Munich and Schweinfurt. He also received private commissions; for example an altar triptych for the family home of Oskar von Miller at Lake Starnberg. When the Church commissions ceased during the First World War, Theodor Baierl was able to devote more time to painting. Saint John the Baptist is painted very much in the traditions of fifteenth and sixteenth century. The landscape is Italianate and Saint John himself is posed in the traditional Renaissance serpentine form, holding a lamb and bearing a simple cross. The composition is simple and the rich earthly colours enhance the overall tenderness of the image and the Saint's embrace.

Theodor Baierl studied at the Munich Academy under Franz von Stuck, Feuerstein and Habermann. He was an artist born out of his time. He passionately believed in the art, love sonnets and archaic harmonies of the Medieval era which, in turn, became the essence of his paintings. Though his pure colours and attention to detail mirrors the art of the Quattrocento, Baierl was no copyist of the old masters. His compositions are very much a product of his own mind and in the underlying symbolism of these faux old masters can be found the philosophy of the Munich Secession. Though not commenting directly on modern society, his art is a product of his time and his idealization of the past implies dissatisfaction with modern Germany and the monumental upheaval of the First World War.