Agave in Arco
  • Richard Müller
  • Tschirnitz / Bohemia 1874 -1954 Dresden
  • Agave in Arco, 1928
  • Pencil on paper
  • inscribed, dated and signed: Arco 1928 Rich. Müller
  • cat. rais. Z 1928.08
  • 200 × 300 mm
Provenance:
estate of the artist
private collection Hamburg

In summer 1928, Richard Müller visited northern Italy and Venice with his wife, the American concert singer Lillian Sanderson (1866-1947). His expressive study of an Agave was created during this journey, which included a trip to the exotic gardens of Arco, north of Lake Garda. It is a rather inconspicuous motif on the side of the road, yet it demonstrates in exemplary fashion Müller‘s extraordinary drawing style. The artist‘s interest was apparently piqued by the complicated tangle of smooth and sharp leaves, which provided him with an expressive variety of light and shadow contrasts. At the same time, Müller seems to have adjusted the focus of his visual lens precisely on the agave itself, because both the leaves of the hemp palms in the background and the surfaces of the wall are blurred in relative fuzziness – an effect which he partially heightened by smearing the lines.