Gustav WERTHEIMER (1847-1904) Lot n° 11

La leçon d'escrime. Duel féminin dans un palais, Paris, 1885 Oil on canvas, signed and situated lower left 55 1/4 x 74 3/8 in. Gustav Wertheimer was an Austrian painter born in Vienna in 1847, who died in Paris in 1804. He studied at the Munich Academy, and moved to Paris in 1882, just three years before painting this picture. This painting is immediately striking for its impressive size, and for the movement and energy it conveys. The scene absorbs The fencing master in dark clothing, the only male figure, dominates the scene from the centre of the composition, while the two duellists face each other in gracefully adopted positions. On either side, groups of spectators - some of them other pupils - make comments on what is happening.the viewers, who feel they are part of a group watching a fencing match. What is surprising and unusual in 1885 is that the duel involves two girls. It is hard not to think of Hauteclaire Stassin, the romantic heroine of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's 1874 novel Le Bonheur est dans le Crime.