Josef Johann Süss

JOSEF JOHANN SÜSS (Austria, 1857- 1937).
"Portrait of a lady".
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower left corner.
Measurements: 69 x 105 cm; 96 x 138 cm (frame).
In the work of Josef Johann Süss represents a semi-naked woman lying down, following the popular theme of the odalisque, which in this case clearly synthesizes the academicist aesthetics of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The female body, arranged in a gesture of elegant abandon, becomes the central axis of the composition, evoking an ideal of beauty that combines orientalist exoticism with the controlled sensuality characteristic of the European academic tradition. The figure rests among sumptuous fabrics and meticulously elaborated decorative details, cushions, curtains, etc., that refer to a fanciful atmosphere, codified from the Western gaze as "oriental", and that responds more to the European aesthetic desire than to a faithful representation of the Ottoman or Arab.
Süss, trained in a solid Central European tradition, was a meticulous painter, gifted with an impeccable technique that found in historical, mythological and feminine themes his most recurrent fields. His training in Viennese academicism linked him to history painting and a constant search for formal refinement. In this particular work, his brush shows a remarkable ability to translate into texture the softness of the skin, the fall of the fabrics, and the contrast between the brightness of the decorative environment and the smoothness of the human body. The posture of the woman, sensual but serene, avoids explicit provocation; it is rather a visual construction of exotic, serene, unattainable beauty, observed as an object of aesthetic contemplation.