St. Theresa Morl

Gabriel Von Max is known in Japan as the teacher of the artist, HARADA Naojiro and he lived in an apartment next door to the writer and art critic MORI Ogai in Munich. Ogai visited Von Max’s studio to watch him work and after his return to Japan he frequently mentioned Von Max’s name.
Born in Prague, Von Max studied at the academies in Prague, Vienna and Munich before teaching historical painting at the Munich Academy from 1879 to 1883. The majority of his subjects were taken from mythology, the bible or literary works, but he was also known for producing satirical pictures of his pet monkeys made up to resemble humans. The work here was first shown at the Annual Art Association for Bohemia Exhibition in Prague. Theresa Morl was a woman born in the Tyrol area of Austria who experienced stigmata and who died in 1868, the year that this painting was completed. The mysterious atmosphere of the dim, candlelit room combines with the white material depicted in rough brushstrokes, to make the pallid face of the woman, who has just become the wife of God, seem sublime.
The subject of a woman suffering from stigmata can also be seen in his ‘The Ecstasy of Anna Katharina Emmerich’ (1885) that belongs to Neue Pinakothek (Munich). These works demonstrate Von Max’s tendencies towards the occult and his deep interest in supernatural phenomena.