Three-part paravent Ludwig H. Jungnickel ca. 1909

Ludwig H. Jungnickel worked also as designer for the Wiener Werkstatte (WW) and created decorations for glass, fabrics, and graphic designs. His most eminent work for the WW was an animal wall frieze for the children’s room at the Palais Stoclet in Brussels. In 1905, the Belgian industrialist Alphonse Stoclet commissioned Josef Hoffmann and his WW to realize this Gesamtkunstwerk. Until its completion in 1911 the most progressive Austrian artists of their time, such as Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann, and Michael Powolny, worked on it.
Jungnickel first exhibited his color woodcuts at the Kunstschau Vienna in 1908, followed in 1909 by a series of motifs showing exotic animals from the Schönbrunn Zoo. He received international recognition for this work. It is documented that Jungnickel produced three designs for the Stoclet frieze in the same period. Our paravent, showing an idyllic forest landscape with exotic animals, goes back to one of these designs and was probably executed around 1908-09. According to Peter Weber, Jungnickel estate’s administrator, the three panels were made as individual pieces under the artist’s supervision. The paint was applied to the paper using wood, model, and roller printing techniques, and then some details were inserted and painted over by hand by Jungnickel himself. A circumstance that, according to Weber, was quite typical of the artist’s working style.
The design drawing for this screen was published in an article by Berta Zuckerkandl in the magazine “Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration” in 1913. The connection to the Palais Stoclet elevates this work to an exceptional rarity.