A rare table lamp with a nixe and nautilus shell by Gustav Gurschner
Cast bronze with dark brown patina, nautilus shell (Nautilidae), older wiring and light bulb attachment. Signed and dated "899 Gurschner" on the foot, engraved with four dots on the front of the underside. H 52.6 cm.
Vienna, Gustav Gurschner, 1899.
Large table lamps by Gustav Gurschner (1873 - 1970) from his time with the Vienna Secession (Vereinigung bildender Künstler Österreichs Secession) rarely appear on the market. Trained at the Vienna School of Applied Arts, the sculptor specialised in figurative bronze objects, with images of young women among his favourite subjects. Gurscher's initiation as an artist of modernism, of Art Nouveau, probably goes back to his trip to Paris and his meeting with Alexandre Charpentier in 1897.
The lamp is not only a lighting fixture but first and foremost a bronze sculpture. The nautilus shell appears to be carried by sea foam, the bust of the mermaid as if catapulted over it by a wave. The soft light shimmering from the mother-of-pearl shade suggests that the object was created for a lady's room.
Provenance
Westphalian private collection.
Literature
Cf. a photograph of a similar lamp in the MAK in Vienna, inv. no. KI 7391-26, from the winter exhibition 1899/1900.
A third identical item from the collection of Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess on permanent loan to the Museum Wiesbaden, in Forster/Panchaud (ed.), Radikal schön. Jugendstil und Symbolismus. Die Sammlung Ferdinand Wolfgang Neess, Wiesbaden-Berlin 2019, cat. no. L51.