A part of his oeuvre was devoted to sculptures, in particular bronzes, as can be seen at the auction at Ketterer in Munich on November 22.
On offer is a cast of his 2ft 2in (65cm) high Athlet, first modelled in plaster in 1890-92. Stuck most probably took his inspiration from the classical sculptures he had encountered during a visit to Rome in 1890.
This is not, however, a direct copy, but rather a conglomeration of different elements from various figures from antiquity.
Some art historians have even commented on the similarity of the athlete’s head to Stuck himself.
The fact that the signature reads Franz von Stuck dates the cast to post-1906; the year the artist was ennobled and thus allowed to add the ‘von’ to his name. The guide is €8000-10,000.
