The young men in Hans Marées's painting embody a timeless, ideal beauty, whose state of preservation belies the idea of the imperishable. The asphaltum which the artist used as a priming has not only darkened the surfaces of his works, but has also damaged them considerably. And so the picture, which conjures up antiquity as the site of longing and space for an ideal human existence in nature, simultaneously resonates with its loss. Most of Marées's work was produced in Italy and it was not until the early years of the twentieth century that it achieved broad recognition. Together with Anselm Feuerbach and Arnold Böcklin, he belongs to the group of Deutschrömer (Roman Germans).
Since 2001, the Städel Museum has systematically been researching the provenance of all objects that were acquired during the National Socialist period, or that changed owners or could have changed owners during those years. The basis for this research is the “Washington Declaration”, also known as the “Washington Conference Principles”, formulated at the 1998 “Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets” and the subsequent “Joint Declaration”.
The provenance information is based on the sources researched at the time they were published digitally. However, this information can change at any time when new sources are discovered. Provenance research is therefore a continuous process and one that is updated at regular intervals.
Ideally, the provenance information documents an object’s origins from the time it was created until the date when it found its way into the collection. It contains the following details, provided they are known:
The successive ownership records are separated from each other by a semicolon.
Gaps in the record of a provenance are indicated by the placeholder “…”. Unsupported information is listed in square brackets.
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