Printmaking
Klinger's fascination with morbid subjects found a further outlet in his cycles of etchings, modelled on works by the great Spanish printmaker Goya (1746-1828). According to his theoretical essay "Painting and Drawing" (Malerei und Zeichnung), published in 1891, his prints are designed to express the "dark side of life". Highly expressive rather than technically perfect, they include works like Fantasy on Brahms, Eve and the Future, Deliverances of Sacrificial Victims Told in Ovid, A Life and Of Death.
These prints, combined with his history paintings, extended his reputation as one of Germany's leading modern artists of the late nineteenth century. Collected by the National Gallery in Berlin, the Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden, and the Kunsthalle, Hamburg, he was appointed Professor at the Royal Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig. During the mid/late 1890s, he was associated with the progressive secessionist movements, including the Munich Secession (1892), the Vienna Secession (1897) and the Berlin Secession (1898) movement.
Sculpture
From 1897 he focused mainly on sculpture, a medium he explored through the use of a wide range of materials and colour. His polychrome nudes and other stone sculpture, carved from multi-coloured materials in a style reminiscent of Greek chryselephantine sculpture, were quite unlike anything else being produced by his contemporaries. His marble statue of Ludwig van Beethoven, for instance, became a central (albeit controversial) feature of the Vienna Secession exhibit of 1902.
For his efforts, Klinger received a number of awards and honours. He was made a Knight of the Pour le Merite order, elected a full member of the Munich Academy and an honorary member of the Stockholm Academy. He died near Naumburg, Germany, in July 1920, at the comparatively young age of 63.
Reputation and Legacy
A unique, prolific, and incredibly versatile artist, Klinger is chiefly revered for his modernist style of painting, his dreamlike graphic art - largely a blend of Jugendstil and Symbolism - as well as his highly visual sculpture, exemplified by his "Beethoven" monument. Although cited by several symbolists as a key inspiration for their art - an example is Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978), the inventor of Metaphysical Painting: see for example The Mystery and Melancholy of a Street (1914, Private Collection) - Klinger's influence on Surrealism and Art Nouveau, has yet to receive the attention it deserves. He certainly had a deep influence on Salvador Dali (1904-89) and Max Ernst (1891-1976). In addition, motifs from Klinger's art can be glimpsed in paintings and graphic works by major artists like Edvard Munch (1863-1944), Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945), Alfred Kubin (1877-1959), Paul Klee (1879-1940), Max Beckmann (1884-1950), among several others.
In March-June 2007, a major exhibition curated by Richard Huttel opened at the Museum der bildenden Kunste Leipzig, on the artistic legacy of Max Klinger. Later in the same year it travelled to the Hamburger Kunsthalle, where it was jointly curated by Huttel and Petra Roettig. The show featured over 200 artworks, including 60 paintings and 12 sculptures as well as numerous prints, drawings and sketches.
Symbolist prints and paintings by Max Klinger can be seen in the collections of several of the best art museums around the world.
For more 19th century symbolist painters, see: Gustave Moreau (1826-1898), Odilon Redon (1840-1916), Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918), and James Ensor (1860-1949).