Artwork Page for Louis II

Details / Information for Louis II

Louis II

1962

Richard Lindner

(American, 1901–1978)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Unframed: 127 x 101.6 cm (50 x 40 in.)
Credit Line
Contemporary Collection of The Cleveland Museum of Art 1965.450
Copyright
© Artists Right Society (ARS), New York
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Lindner appears in the second row of the Beatles’ St. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) album cover.

Description

Richard Lindner’s often colorful figures in hard-edge style build a bridge between the classic modern European art and aspects of American popular culture. With the historical figure of Louis II, Lindner refers to a memory of his childhood in Germany that is the subject in several of his later paintings. Ludwig II of Bavaria (sometimes rendered as Louis II in English) was King of Bavaria from 1864 until shortly before his death. He is sometimes called the Swan King (or Märchenkönig in German) and is considered to have been mentally ill, though the medical diagnosis remains controversial. Adding to the controversy are his eccentric character and the mysterious circumstances under which he died. In Lindner’s painting Ludwig II appears as an enigmatic, yet powerful figure whose legacy is strongly connected with the history of art.
Oil painting with geometric shapes suggesting figures embracing in front a dark background. In the upper right a human face is divided in medium-dark, muted teal, and light shades, with a target on their forehead. Their geometric body embraces another with only a blue-toned rectangle where a head would be. To the left center is written "L.2." A face with a light skin tone in a hat looks up from the lower left corner.

Louis II

1962

Richard Lindner

(American, 1901–1978)
America

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