Albert von Keller 1844-1920

Born in Switzerland and co-founder of the Munich Secession alongside, notably, Franz von Stuck, Keller, during the Wilhelmine era, was influenced by the music of Chopin and Wagner. He painted interiors and social scenes, portraits, and nudes, in a grand style and large formats. Keller observed séances and was fascinated by hypnotic states. His preferred subject was the female world liberated from the corset: the actresses, dancers, and mediums. Comparable in expression to Auguste Rodin, he mastered a wide repertoire: while drawing inspiration from Impressionism, he selected motifs from Symbolism and developed a language of colors and forms that would later be described as Expressionist by Munch, Kirchner, and Beckmann.

Keller’s art offers a vibrant depiction of Wilhelmine society and the Belle Époque. With more than a thousand works, his oeuvre completes the currents of Art Nouveau. His expressive range was astonishing, spanning from melodious and charming tones to the most strikingly dissonant ones. Contemporary art critics regarded him as the modern romantic par excellence. However, his lifestyle did not correspond to that of an impoverished poet. Married to the daughter of the founder of the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank, he settled in Munich’s best district and mingled with the city’s most eminent circles. Enjoying social success, adorned with awards and decorations, he considered “magnificent women with a fresh eye,” as Fritz von Ostini wrote in 1914 in the magazine Jugend. Keller depicted the elegant world of ladies, their alluring outfits, and fashionable attire. His portrait of the last Tsarina, the finest ever made of her, is a brilliant illustration. Yet not all personalities were portrayed in accordance with their social rank.

Keller observed occult phenomena in the office of psychiatrist Albert Baron von Schrenck-Notzing. He documented the effects of somnambulism on the human face and described bodies under hypnosis. Around 1900, interest in the occult was a phenomenon shared across all social strata. It captivated both scientists like Pierre and Marie Curie, and later artists and writers of the lineage of Thomas Mann, as well as sensation-hungry charlatans. The legendary Italian medium Eusapia Palladino appears in Keller’s worlds, as does the highly admired Madeleine Guipet, a dancer in a hypnotic sleep state. When Keller joined the newly created Munich Psychological Society in 1886, he had the opportunity to study mimicry, gestures, and excitations produced by various levels of consciousness. In his paintings he revealed these states of mind, that were considered impossible to depict, without rendering them ridiculous. Keller thus discovered a new source of inspiration in mysticism and somnambulism, as demonstrated by his major work The Resurrection of Jairus’ Daughter (1886, Munich, Neue Pinakothek) and his numerous studies executed in mortuary deposits. A psychology of horror and ecstasy is staged with theatrical means, as seen in his paintings of witches at the stake or snake charmers.

Keller’s first exhibitions date back to 1870. He frequently traveled to France and often participated in the Salon in Paris. He co-founded the Munich Secession in 1892. In 1908, the Munich Artists’ Association organized an exhibition featuring 145 works, a significant artistic and social event. Regarded in his time as an important painter, Keller fell into obscurity after his death. A century later, his first monographic exhibition was held in a museum space in Zurich, offering the opportunity to rediscover Keller’s oeuvre - rich in sensual passion, ascetic conjurations, and mystical visions. His works are primarily preserved at the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Basel Museum, the Neue Pinakothek in Munich, and the Kunsthalle Hamburg.

Although Keller’s paintings were considered modern when created and were exhibited as such, they are now useful for understanding modern avant-gardes. Unlike Albert von Keller, who was more a guardian than an innovator, the Fauves, Cubists, and Dadaists rebelled against the Fin de Siècle, opposing the hedonism, melancholy, and egocentrism of the upper bourgeoisie to which Keller and his circle belonged.