Salammbô

1894 · Kunstsammlungen zu Schlossmuseum, Weimar

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Strathmann's most famous picture is Salammbô, representing the fictional title character of a historical novel by Gustave Flaubert. Lovis Corinth wrote of the painting in 1903: "Soon, however, the model was sent home, and Strathmann gradually covered his Salammbô's nakedness with more and more rugs and fantastical garments of his own invention, so that by the end only a mystical profile and the fingers of one hand peeped out from amongst a profusion of ornamental fabrics. " Flaubert's novel is set in Carthage immediately before and during the Mercenary Revolt (241-237 B.

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About the Artist

Carl Strathmann

1866 – 1939

German painter, graphic artist and handicraft designer. He studied at the Academy in Dsseldorf from 1882 to 1886, and subsequently, until 1889, at the Weimar School of Art under Leopold Kalckreuth (1855-1928), whom he followed to Munich in 1890. There he joined the Bohemian set around Lovis Corinth. At an exhibition by the Munich Secession, he was profoundly impressed by the mysticism of Jan Toorop and Fernand Khnopff. Although his own painting was strongly influenced by Dutch Symbolism, he published parodies of Symbolist Art in the magazines Jugend, Fliegende Bltter and Pan. In 1894, he became a member of the Mnchner Freie Vereinigung (Munich Free Association), a splinter group of the Munich Secession. Around 1900, in the studio founded with Adalbert Niemeyer (1867-1932), he turned increasing attention to applied art, designing fabrics, menus, wallpapers, and tapestries. He is also well known for his gold medal jewellery, occasionally set with stones. Strathmann renounced traditional illusionistic techniques and emphasized the decorative character of his compositions. He thereby achieved the " fairytale atmosphere " so beloved of Munich Secession.

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