Große Berliner Kunst-Ausstellung, Berlin, 1895, cat. no. 1181 („Eingang zum Luxortempel") / Münchener Jahres-Ausstellung. Munich, Glaspalast, 1899, cat.-no. 690 („Eingang zum Tempel in Luxor“) / Exhibition of Contemporary German Art. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1909, without cat.-no.
Literature and illustration
Anonymous: The German Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum. In: Academy Notes. Vol. 4, no. 9, February 1909, p. 151-153, here p. 153 / Auction: Nachlass Paul Meyerheim, Berlin. Berlin, Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, 15.3.1916, cat. no. 29 („Partie am Luxor-Tempel. Staffiert")
On 10 June 1893, the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung announced: ‘Prof. Paul Meyerheim has now happily returned to Berlin from his lengthy study trip to Egypt and the Orient.’ The trip bore rich fruit. Meyerheim was represented at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in the summer of 1895 with 19 Oriental paintings. Among them, under the number 1181, was our painting showing the entrance to the Luxor Temple, which at the time was apparently still half submerged in sand. The blue of the Egyptian sky refracts clearly and radiantly against the warm ochre tones of the sand and stones. The two women with the jugs on their heads are also painted with masterly confidence in quick, loose brushstrokes. Although the painting remained unsold at the annual exhibition at the Glaspalast in Munich in 1899, Meyerheim himself attached such great importance to it that he sent it to New York 10 years later together with another work. There it hung in the exhibition ‘Contemporary German Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum and caused more of a stir than the works by Liebermann and Franz von Lenbach, who was represented with a portrait of Bismarck, among others - ‘not one of the best’, as the reviewer of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Notes laconically notes. Meyerheim's ‘Luxor’, on the other hand, was ‘a very excellent study, simple, brilliant, and full of character.’ (Vol. IV, No. 9, February 1909). After the exhibition, the painting travelled back to Berlin, remained in the possession of Meyerheim's family and is now seeing the light of day again after more than 100 years. FMG
Oil on canvas. Relined. 42 × 54 cm
(16 ½ × 21 ¼ in.). Signed lower left: PAMeyerheim. Monogrammed, inscribed and dated lower right PM Luxor 5.2.1893. On the reverse of the decorative frame a label: M. K. V. 834. Relined. [3242] Framed
Provenance
Estate of the artist (thence by descent to the present owner)
Große Berliner Kunst-Ausstellung, Berlin, 1895, cat. no. 1181 („Eingang zum Luxortempel") / Münchener Jahres-Ausstellung. Munich, Glaspalast, 1899, cat.-no. 690 („Eingang zum Tempel in Luxor“) / Exhibition of Contemporary German Art. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1909, without cat.-no.
Literature and illustration
Anonymous: The German Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum. In: Academy Notes. Vol. 4, no. 9, February 1909, p. 151-153, here p. 153 / Auction: Nachlass Paul Meyerheim, Berlin. Berlin, Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, 15.3.1916, cat. no. 29 („Partie am Luxor-Tempel. Staffiert")
On 10 June 1893, the Berliner Börsen-Zeitung announced: ‘Prof. Paul Meyerheim has now happily returned to Berlin from his lengthy study trip to Egypt and the Orient.’ The trip bore rich fruit. Meyerheim was represented at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition in the summer of 1895 with 19 Oriental paintings. Among them, under the number 1181, was our painting showing the entrance to the Luxor Temple, which at the time was apparently still half submerged in sand. The blue of the Egyptian sky refracts clearly and radiantly against the warm ochre tones of the sand and stones. The two women with the jugs on their heads are also painted with masterly confidence in quick, loose brushstrokes. Although the painting remained unsold at the annual exhibition at the Glaspalast in Munich in 1899, Meyerheim himself attached such great importance to it that he sent it to New York 10 years later together with another work. There it hung in the exhibition ‘Contemporary German Art’ at the Metropolitan Museum and caused more of a stir than the works by Liebermann and Franz von Lenbach, who was represented with a portrait of Bismarck, among others - ‘not one of the best’, as the reviewer of the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy Notes laconically notes. Meyerheim's ‘Luxor’, on the other hand, was ‘a very excellent study, simple, brilliant, and full of character.’ (Vol. IV, No. 9, February 1909). After the exhibition, the painting travelled back to Berlin, remained in the possession of Meyerheim's family and is now seeing the light of day again after more than 100 years. FMG
