Max Slevogt

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameFranz Theodor Max•Slevogt
Used nameMax•Slevogt
Born8 October 1868 in Landshut, Bayern (GER)
Died20 September 1932 in Leinsweiler, Rheinland-Pfalz (GER)
NOC Germany

Biography

German painter Max Slevogt stands alongside Max Liebermann and Lovis Corinth as the most important German Impressionists. Slevogt is considered one of the last open-air painters. He studied from 1884-89 in München and then moved to Paris for further training, where he turned to French Impressionism. In 1901 he settled in Berlin and became a member of the Berlin Secession.

In the early years of the 20th century, Slevogt played with the idea to become an opera singer for a long period, especially as he was extremely fascinated by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” and he had a very beautiful voice. In 1914 he traveled to Egypt, where he reached the peak of his career. During World War I he worked as an official war artist and was severely shocked by the suffering of the soldiers. Towards the end of the war, he joined the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin.

In the 1920s, Slevogt painted numerous stage sets, leaving behind a rich oeuvre. In the Villa Ludwigshöhe in Edenkoben, the Max Slevogt Gallery has been scientifically supervised by the Landesmuseum Mainz since 1980. Since 1972, a Max-Slevogt-Medal has been awarded to artists or their sponsors by the Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate. In 1978, the German Federal Post devoted a stamp to Slevogt in the series on German Expressionism.

Max Slevogt came from an art-oriented family, some of his relatives included: Adolf Slevogt (1819–1885), a court theater painter, and Hugo Slevogt (1857-1926), a famous architect. One more relative was Marquard Slevogt, an ice hockey player participating at the 1928 and 1932 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz respectively Lake Placid.

Slevogt’s painting Piqueur is shown in the German exhibition catalog. It was proposed for the first prize at the 1928 Amsterdam Art Competitions by the German jury members. But the other jury members agreed on “a Dutch painting to win and in second place on an English one”. Hence the third prize was given to a German artist, Walther Klemm, while Slevogt’s painting was decommissioned from the competition, which also happened to a painting by Liebermann and a sculpture by Georg Kolbe. This statement could not be verified, however.

Two submitted paintings show scenes of harness racing, a frequent subject in Slevogt’s work. The artist had been attracted to this sport by his publisher Bruno Cassirer (1872-1941). An image from the international catalog shows Trabrennen (Harness Racing, oil on canvas, 35 x 59 cm.). It was painted in 1907 and was already acquired by the Berlin State Museums in 1916. Another one was painted only around 1920 and is titled Trabrennbahn in Ruhleben (Trotting Racecourse in Ruhleben). It is now in possession of the Städtische Galerie Lenbachhaus & Kunstbau München.

Slevogt also exhibited lithographs on the topic of Harness Racing in Amsterdam. According to the German catalog, there were twelve of them altogether. The international catalog calls them generally Graphic Works and lists only six sub-numbers. Probably these lithographs belonged to a series of 13 sheets, which were drawn on-site on transfer paper in the format of 35 x 45 cm.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1928 Summer Olympics Art Competitions GER Max Slevogt
Painting, Graphic Arts, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Paintings, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Paintings, Open (Olympic) AC
Painting, Paintings, Open (Olympic) AC