ottmar hörl wagner dirigiert bayreuth - Maisenbacher-art.com

sheds more light on the subject. Carried out in the studio, the oil paintingis again dominated by dark colours. In the background we see aplush, dark green velvet curtain with gold embroidery in which the colourvalues are astonishingly similar to those of the Venetian dressinggown in the Willich work. But Pecht‘s portrait also does not reveal anygreat passion for colour. The dark gallery tone of the Munich School mayhave had something to do with this mode of depiction. This interpretationis supported by the famous oil painting by Auguste Renoir, who wasallotted just thirty-five minutes to paint Wagner‘s portrait on 15 January1882 in Palermo. 6 An interesting episode, given that the German composersat for a French painter, and particularly the fact that Wagner knewabsolutely nothing about Renoir and the art of the French Impressionists,who abandoned black and earthy tones in favour of a more vibrantpalette. 7 In Renoir‘s painting the subject‘s costume is similar to that inthe Willich and Pecht portraits. He is wearing a dark green dressing gowntrimmed with reddish brown fur and a dark cravat. The gaze of the beholderis captured more by the composer‘s rosy cheeks and the pinchedfacial expression, but also by the colour in the background. The dominantcolours there are lilac and pink, giving the subject a strangelyshimmering appearance. The painting, which is in the Musée d’Orsaycollection, was described by Cosima as a „very strange, bluish pink result“.8Dark, velvety green and shades ranging from pink to red are the coloursmost likely to break any ground in the portraits. And, in fact, the colourgreen does occur again and again in Wagner‘s personal surroundings. In1858, for example, he reported to Eliza Wille that his bedroom in Venice,where he stayed for a time after leaving Zurich, was green. 9 A year laterhe wrote to Mathilde Wesendonck from Lucerne: „However, now there issomething else, but for heaven‘s sake do not mention a word of it toWesendonck. – I am travelling with my blankets and beds with me –what a spoiled person I am! – The silk covers look so terribly dirty, however,that I am ashamed what the chambermaid might think. Pleasesee if you can find the necessary fabric in Zurich; they were green, butcould, if necessary, also turn red the way the leaves do in autumn.“ 10During this period, green appears to have been an important aspect ofWagner‘s domestic world. The colour certainly occurs in Tribschen, wherethe restless, ever-driven composer managed to settle for seven years asof 1866. He built the magnificent house on Lake Lucerne according tohis own tastes, and even put in a green room, as he wrote to King LudwigII of Bavaria: „At one o clock then Jacob calls me to the table. So Ileave my desk in the green study. This is an odd little room which I obtainedby reconstructing the whole interior.“ 11 The chair on which Wagnerwas once photographed in Tribschen with his daughter Eva in thearms of Jules Bonnet is still in the Wagner Museum near Lucerne. Thischair is also a dark green similar to that in Willich‘s painting and Pecht‘sbackground, and decorated with fine, colourful flowers (fig. 2). In Tribschen,just as later in Wahnfried, there was also a salon with orangewallpaper. 12The decoration and furnishing of his private surroundings were very importantto Wagner. We know a lot of the details thanks to Bertha Goldwag,a milliner who served Wagner for many years. She decorated threeresidences for the composer: in Penzing near Vienna, the house on Briennerstrassein Munich, and that in Tribschen near Lucerne. In each ofthese domiciles her task was to install, according to Wagner‘s instruc-– 45 –