This painting is one of several small works painted in Capri, which had been become a popular holiday venue for German visitors (including Kaiser Wilhelm II) from the end of the 19th century. The artist’s early work had presented an idealised vision of German rural life, but also introduced fantastic elements that reflected the influence of the leading artists who had formed the Munich Secession. By the time he was elected to membership of the Viennese Kunstlerhaus in 1911 (from which Klimt, Moser, Olbricht and Hoffman had resigned in 1897 to form the Vienna Secession), the Austrian art world was in turmoil, with Klimt, Hoffman, Wagner and List having broken from the Secession. Sterrer’s paintings on Capri marked the beginning of his own break with tradition, the title of this work being emphasised by the blue flowers decorating the frame’s inside edge. The work will be included in the Karl Sterrer catalogue raisonné currently in preparation. We are grateful to Prof. Josef Seiter for his input in researching this painting.

Karl Sterrer graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna in 1907, having studied under Alois Delug and Christian Griepenkerl. From early on, his work was influenced by Anselm Feuerbach and the Munich Secession. In 1908, he received the prestigious Prix de Rome before undertaking trips through Europe including Switzerland, France, Spain and Germany. Around 1910, Sterrer was one of the first Austrian artists to be intrigued by the beginnings of German Expressionism. In 1911 he was made a member of the Wiener Künstlerhaus (until 1931) and received – among others – the Kaiserpreis in 1914 for his monumental Holy Family, executed in 1913. From 1915, Sterrer worked as an official war painter, and travelled to the Russian and Italian frontlines where he mainly painted and drew aviators and portraits of fighter pilots, as well as posters for war bonds. A certain formal rigor and earnestness is particularly evident in his wartime portraiture. From 1921, he taught at the Vienna Academy and was twice appointed its director. Leopold Hauer, Hans Fronius, Rudolf Hausner, Karl Glatt and Max Weiler were among Sterrer’s students. In 1957, he was awarded the Great Austrian State Prize for Fine Arts. Apart from his nudes and portraits, Sterrer painted a large number of landscapes, which exhibit a more lyrical character reminiscent of German Romanticism. His works are shown in the collections of the Belvedere, Vienna, Dresden State Galleries, and Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, where he exhibited regularly in the 1920s and was – together with Henri Matisse and Glyn Philpot (fig. 3-4) – a member of the Jury of Award for the 29th International Exhibition of Modern Painting in 1930 which then was the most important annual exhibition of modern art in the U. S.