Pair of candlesticks
designed (c. 1901); manufactured (c. 1904)
Medium
pewter
Measurements
36.5 × 17.5 × 11.4 cm (each)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased with funds donated by Merv Keehn and Sue Harlow, 2016
Gallery location
Mid 20th Century Paintings & Decorative Arts Gallery
Level 2, NGV International
About this work
Joseph Maria Olbrich was an architect and a co-founder of the Vienna Secession, an association of young, disaffected artists who united against the conservative institutions dominating artistic life in Austria in the late nineteenth century. In 1899 Ernst Ludwig, Grand Duke of Hesse, enticed Olbrich to come to his capital city, Darmstadt, as a member of the newly founded Darmstadt Artists’ Colony. Olbrich was one of a number of important progressive artists and designers who worked at the colony creating houses and interiors in the Jugendstil style, or youth style, a central European interpretation of the French Art Nouveau style. These candlesticks, designed by Olbrich, are one of the most iconic representatives of the ‘Darmstadt style’.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Lüdenscheid, Germany
Accession Number
2016.456.1-2
Department
International Decorative Arts