Over the years, Carl Sachs gained renown in Breslau as an outstanding art collector who supported the city by organizing exhibitions featuring works from his collection. He earned particular acclaim in 1931 when, despite the prevailing economic crisis, he decided to donate his entire collection of prints and drawings by German artists to the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts in Breslau. A special exhibition of these works was organized within the museum. The objects donated by Sachs were of particular significance, including works by contemporary artists such as Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, Lovis Corinth, and Käthe Kollwitz. These artists were previously absent from the Silesian Museum of Fine Arts, enriching the museum’s collection. The director of the museum, Erich Wiese, emphasized this in one of the most important German art history journals, the “Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte.” Wiese expressed admiration for the nineteenth-century drawings from Sachs’s collection, praising the “melody of line” in two female nudes by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld.
Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld was a member of the Nazarenes, a group of mainly German and Austrian painters working in Italy who drew inspiration from early Renaissance art. They advocated for the renewal of art while criticizing the ossification of academic standards. Schnorr von Carolsfeld’s works reflect a return to classical forms and the simplicity characteristic of Quattrocento art. Both nudes in Sachs’s collection depict the same model and were created during the artist’s stay in Rome, which occurred intermittently between 1818 and 1826. This is indicated by the inscription “Rom” in the lower right corners of the drawings.
Since 1946, the drawing “Female Nude in a Standing Pose” has been part of the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw.
Drawing Information:
pencil on paper, dimensions: 39 x 24.5 cm, National Museum in Warsaw, Warsaw.
Literature:
Erich Wiese, Die Stiftung Carl Sachs für das Schlesische Museum der bildenden Künste in Breslau, “Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte”, 1 (1932), p. 149.
Masters of German drawing from the end of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. From the collections of the National Museum in Warsaw, ed. Anna Kozak, Warsaw 1991, no. 77.