Klinger, Max

(2/18/1857 Leipzig-7/5/1920 Grossjena) (Germany)

   Graphic artist, painter, and sculptor. Studied at the art school in Karlsruhe under Karl Grussow (his fellow students included Slevogt and Hodler), then to the Berlin Academy. Moving to Brussels he privately studied with Emil-Charles Waters. Known to have created erotic tiles for his home in Grossjena. His fantasy-absurdist imagery based on pre-Freudian dream literature had an influence on the development of Surrealism. Like Rops, he repeatedly used the theme of the demonic woman. Most of the erotic works are from the last ten years of his life.

   Reproductions: [Crowd of nude females holding dildoes]; Klinger, 1984d: Fig. 2167 . [Cunnilingus scene]; pencil; Klinger, 1984d: figs. 2161-2162 [B]. Erotic fantasies; 1919; etching; Klinger, 1983a: fig. 1545 [B]. Ex libris eroticis; etching; Klinger, 1986: figs. 622, 623, 625 [B]. Ex libris eroticis; lithograph; Klinger, 1986: fig. 624 [B]. [Female nude]; pencil; Klinger, 1984d: figs. 2137, 2145, 2153, 2156, 2159, 2168 [B]. [Illustrations from Sodom]; c1909; Kronhausen, 1968: p. 105 [B]. [Lesbian lovers]; pencil; Klinger, 1984d: figs. 2155, 2157, 2158 [B]. [Lovers]; 1918; ink; Klinger, 1984d: 2172 [B]. [Lovers copulating]; pencil; Klinger, 1984d: figs. 2163-2166, 2169 [B]. [Lovers in foreplay]; pencil; Klinger, 1984d: figs. 2160, 2175 [B]. [Lovers in sexual embrace]; 1920; watercolor; Klinger, 1984d: plate XXV . [Nude woman fondling male angel]; 1918; ink; Klinger, 1984d: p. 2170 [B]. [Old man and two women]; 1918; ink; Klinger, 1984d: p. 2171 [B]. [Woman pursued by phalli]; 1918; pencil; Klinger, 1984d: p. 2173 [B]. [Woman pursued by phalli]; 1918; etching; Klinger, 1984d: p. 2174 [B].

   [b]Source: Benezit, vol. 7: pp. 1334-1336; DoA vol. 18: pp. 134-136; Max Klinger and Hans-Werner Schmidt, Max Klinger: erotische einblicke; Sammlung Siegfried Unter-berger und Museum der bildenden Kunste Leipzig(Leipzig: Museum der bildenden Kunste, 2003); ThB XX 1927: p. 513.