Stehender Jünglingsakt zwischen Felsen

About this artwork

Zu diesem Gemälde existiert eine gerasterte Figurenstudie (Sotheby’s London, Vienna 1900, 23.9.1993, Nr. 173). Das Gemälde wurde in Fälschungsabsicht mit dem Namen Ferdinand Hodlers versehen und gleichzeitig die Lesbarkeit des Nachlassstempels reduziert.

Art Historical Context

Koloman Moser’s “Stehender Jünglingsakt zwischen Felsen,” painted around 1915, captures a solitary nude youth poised between rugged rocks. As one of the leading figures of the Vienna Secession and a co-founder of the Wiener Werkstätte, Moser brought his characteristic sense of rhythm and simplified form to this oil on canvas. The modest scale—50.5 by 37.5 centimeters—invites close viewing, allowing the viewer to appreciate the artist’s careful modulation of light across skin and stone. A surviving gridded figure study reveals Moser’s methodical approach to composition, transferring the pose precisely onto the final canvas. The work’s quiet monumentality echoes the Symbolist interest in the human body as a vessel for inner states, while the rocky setting adds a timeless, almost mythic quality typical of early twentieth-century Austrian painting. An intriguing chapter in the painting’s history involves an attempt to pass it off as a work by Ferdinand Hodler, with the estate stamp partially obscured. Today, correctly attributed in the Belvedere Collection, the canvas stands as a testament to Moser’s late explorations and the complex provenance journeys many modern works have traveled.