Gustav Bartsch (1821-1906) - La morte di Cleopatra - cm 111 x 142

Gustav Bartsch (1821 – 1906)
The Death of Cleopatra
Oil on canvas, 111 x 142 cm
Signed on the back Gustav Bartisch

Cleopatra, dead, lies at the center of Gustav Bartsch’s composition, captured in the moment immediately after the suicide. The Queen of Egypt lies reclining on the bed, which in iconographic tradition serves both as nuptial nuptial couch and as a funeral bed, wrapped in wispy white garments and adorned with regal jewelry: the diadem among her hair, the necklace of precious stones, the bracelets on her arms. The abandoned right arm, sliding downward in a gesture now devoid of strength, is the classic sign by which painting indicates the death that has occurred. At the foot of the bed, a maidservant laments, hiding her face in her hands. In front of the bier, a male figure wrapped in a wide red cloak embroidered with gold, probably a dignitary or an envoy. On the right, the scene abruptly opens to the intrusion of Roman soldiers in armor, led by an officer whose face betrays consternation, surprise, and an involuntary respect for the queen’s resolve. Those soldiers represent the power of Rome and Octavian, arrived too late: war was won on the field, but Cleopatra, by taking her own life, deprived the victor of the most coveted trophy, that of leading her prisoner to Rome.

The painting is part of Gustav Bartsch’s history painting oeuvre, the German painter, portraitist, and illustrator born in 1821 in Gleiwitz and active mainly in the second half of the nineteenth century. His talent showed itself very early: as early as 1836, at only fifteen, he exhibited a pen drawing at the Berliner Kunstausstellung, a sign of a solid graphic training that would characterize his entire career. After marrying Clara Friederike Georgine von Strombeck, Bartsch settled in the Blasewitz district of Dresden, becoming an active presence in the Saxon art scene of the time. His production sits within the orbit of academic art and German historicism, with a evident propensity for historical and exotic subjects, nourished by the Orientalist taste very widespread in the figurative culture of mid-century. In works of similar dramatic breadth and ancient setting, often of Orientalist subject, Bartsch shows the same care in rendering fabrics, architectures, and ornaments, as well as the same theatrical attention to the composition of the figures. Cleopatra’s Death lends itself perfectly to this language, combining a fascination with ancient Orient and the moral suggestion of the defeat of an empire and the queen’s personal triumph over her own fate. The work also testifies to how naturally Bartsch moved between high-quality editorial illustration and easel painting destined for bourgeois collectors and nineteenth-century exhibitions, an arena in which his painting technique and narrative sensibility found full realization.

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