Festive Venus by Raphael Kirchner

Well, it is the first Christmas for my reincarnated Venus Observations blog, so it is back just over a hundred years for this festive filly with her load of mistletoe by Austrian artist Raphael Kirchner (1876-1917).  Kirchner produced some of the earliest pin up paintings, many of which were produced as postcards and were popular with troops during the Great War.  He was a direct influence on Alberto Vargas who went on to produce famous pinups for Esquire and Playboy.

I will look at some more of Kirchner's elegant ladies in the new year.  Thanks to all those readers who have followed me here and I hope you all get some Christmas kisses!

Venus in Black Stockings 2: Pictures by Manuel Robbe

This wonderfully erotic print of a masturbating girl is by French artist Manuel Robbe (1872-1936). Although he worked in pastels, oils and watercolour it is as a printmaker that he is best known. His technique of using a poupee (a cloth covered ball) to apply sugar and indian ink to his metal plates, then heating them as well as using the same plate for multiple colours produced the multi-tonal blacks and greys which are such a feature of this print. It also meant that each one was slightly different.  The girl's red hair provides the only flash of colour in this otherwise monochrome picture.  This is a potent image for Agent Triple P because, as a teenager, the first girl we ever saw playing with herself, in reality, was a redhead.  She wasn't wearing black stockings though, just a white towelling dressing gown.

Seated nude 1910

Robbe was born in Paris and studied at Lycées Condorcet and Louis-le-Grand then at the Académie Julian and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. .  He won a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Exposition.  Many of his pictures focus on women and provide an excellent window into the world of the Belle Epoque.

Femme ajustant son bas

During the Great War Robbe enlisted as a pilot and won the Croix de Guerre for his combat bravery.

La Puce

Although many of his pictures were conventional there is certainly a number of overtly erotic works in his catalogue, such as this breast fondling young lady.   We will post a couple of these over on our Seduction of Venus blog, shortly.  Although puce means flea in French it also is a term used for a virgin girl.

Les Bas Noirs

Venus in Black Stockings 1: Im Boudoir by Károly Teuchert

Im Boudoir (1922) 

Back to the nineteen twenties for this painting by Hungarian painter Károly Teuchert (1886-1924),  It has been virtually impossible to find out anything about the artist, apart from the fact that he studied in Budapest and at the Academy of Fine arts in Munich. Is the leggy lady ddepicted in this painting dressing or undressing? She looks wistfully at her clothes but her pose doesn't indicate any discomfort with her state. Perhaps she is a woman who well knows the power of her body. This painting was sold in 2010 for nearly $4,500 but Teuchert nudes have gone for as much as $11,000.

Teuchert painted a number of nudes in the nineteen twenties. This second boudoir painting, from the same year, features a maid drying her mistress' foot while the lady admires herself in the mirror. There is all manor of gentle sensuality in this one.  The mistress gazes at her reflection with satisfaction while the maid regards her foot with, almost, adoration.

Here is a splendid rear view, with the lady caught in direct sunlight flooding the room.  Her face isn't visible as the painting is all about that illuminated bottom and back, as she lies in a seemingly rumpled bed.

Nude with cat (1926) 

This one was one of his last paintings, done in 1926, the year of his death. The girl sports the newly fashionable short hair of the period. There is no question of any  representation of furniture in this, just a neutral background to display her charms. Is it saying, is this girl's character like her black cat?  Watch out!