Max Klinger: Intermezzos, Opus IV

The Opus IV offers a diverse selection of amusements, like brief comedic interludes at the opera. The portfolio highlights the capriciousness of life and includes a sequence of four prints on the mythological lives of centaurs, four prints based on Hans Jakob Christoph von Grimmelshausen's seventeenth-century tale The Adventurous Simplicissimus, and four individual compositions further elaborating Klinger's favored themes of desire, death, and fantasy. The twelve prints vary in size and format, but all reveal sublime vistas and demonstrate Klinger's mastery of the vocabulary of Romantic landscapes and lessons he learned through studying Japanese prints.

Klinger dedicated the portfolio to engraver and art dealer Hermann Sagert, who had encouraged him to disseminate his work more broadly by making prints. It also honors the composer Robert Schumann, whose musical Intermezzi are opus four in his own career.

 Blatt 1 (Plate 1): Bär und Elfe  (Bear and Elf)

Blatt 2 (Plate 2): Am Meer  (By the Sea)

Blatt 3 (Plate 3) : Verfolgter Centaur  (Persued Centaur)

 Blatt 4 (Plate 4): Mondnacht  (Moonlight)

Blatt 5  (Plate 4): Kämpfende Centauren  (Battling Centaurs)

 Blatt 6  (Plate 6): Bergsturz  (Landslide)

 Blatt 7  (Plate 7): Simplici Schreibstunde (Simplicius‘ Writing Lesson)

Blatt 8  (Plate 8): Simplicius am Grabe des Einsiedlers  (Simplicius at the Hermit’s Grave)
                         

Blatt 9 (Plate 9): Simplicius unter den Soldaten ( Simplicius among the soldiers)

 Blatt 10 (Plate 10): Simplicius in der Wald-Einöde (Simplicius in the Wilderness)

Blatt 11 (Plate11): Gefallener Reiter  (Fallen Rider)

Blatt 12 (Plate 12): Amor Tod und Jenseits (Cupid, Death and the Beyond)