A plaster model of a grimacing head, probably first half 19th century
A plaster model of a grimacing head, probably first half 19th century

AFTER FRANZ XAVER MESSERSCHMIDT

细节
A plaster model of a grimacing head, probably first half 19th century
After Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
Inscribed A.Bey to the reverse
18¼in. (46.3cm.) high
and another similar plaster head, after Messerschmidt -- 18¼in. (46.3cm.) high (2)

拍品专文

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:
Maria Potzl-Malikova, Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, Vienna, Jugend und Volk, 1982.
The first head is a model of catalogue number 71, the original metal cast is in the Museum der Bildenden Kunste, Budapest (Inv. Nr.53655).
The second is a model of catalogue number 69, the original was of lead, whereabouts presently unknown.

The series of sixty-nine grimacing self portrait heads were 'discovered' posthumously in his studio, forty-nine of which were subsequently displayed in a Prague exhibition of 1793 called Merkwurdige Lebensgeschichte des Franz Xaver Messerschmidt K.K. Oeffentliche Lehrer des Bildhauerkunst.
The heads from the exhibition were of a lead and tin alloy. The plaster busts, many of which are illustrated in Maria Potzl-Malikova's catalogue, are thought to be copies from the early 19th century and later.

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (born Wiesensteig, near Ulm, 6th February 1736, died Pressburg, 19th August 1783).