Gustav WERTHEIMER (Vienna, 1847 - Paris, 1902) The kiss in the waves or The Wave Oil on canvas (Original canvas) Signed 'G. Wertheimer' lower right (Accident lower left) No frame The Kiss in the Waves, oil on canvas, signed, by G. Wertheimer 53.54 x 42.91 in. 136.0 x 109.0 cm Provenance: Gérard Lévy Collection ; Then by descent Exhibitions: Salon des Artistes français, Paris, place de Breteuil, 1900, cat. no. 1358: "La vague" (The Wave) Triumph der Schöneit / Die Epoche der Salonmarelei von Makart bis Rossetti, Krems (Austria), Kunsthalle, 5 March - 30 July 2006, reproduced p. 49: "Die Woge". Bibliography: Postcard no. 110 Gr; ND Phot; circa 1900: "Salons de Paris - La Vague, par Wertheimer". Baschet, Ludovic, Catalogue illustré du Salon de la Société des Artistes Français de 1900, Paris, Ludovic Baschet, 1900, cat. no. 1358 p. 4: "La Vague - The wave", reproduced p. 207 Baschet, Ludovic, Le Panorama: Le Louvre et Le Luxembourg, photographs by Ad. Braun, Clément & Cie, Paris, Ludovic Baschet, 1900, reproduced p. 730: "La Vague". Schurr, Gérald, 1820-1920 / Les Petits Maîtres de la Peinture / Valeur de Demain, tome 3, Les Editions de l'Amateur, 1976, reproduced p. 127: "La Vague". Born in Vienna, Gustav Wertheimer trained with Carl Mayer and Joseph von Führich at the city's Academy of Fine Arts from 1863 to 1867, then in Wilhelm von Dietz's studio at the Munich Fine Arts Academy. In 1882, he moved to Paris and exhibited almost every year at the Salon des Artistes français. Exhibited in 1900 (cat. no. 1358), our painting takes up the subject of his first success at the Paris Salon the year he arrived (cat. no. 2685), a huge canvas depicting The Kiss of the Siren, now in Indianapolis. This time framed vertically, Wertheimer depicted a fantastical sea that seemed to belong more to the realm of dreams than to any specific mythology. Against the eerie backdrop of a night-time storm, a sailor leans overboard to embrace a mermaid whose alabaster-white body blends elegantly with the undulating foam of the waves. Gustav WERTHEIMER (Vienna, 1847 - Paris, 1902) 136.0 x 109.0 cm Born in Vienna, Gustav Wertheimer trained with Carl Mayer and Joseph von Führich at the city's Academy of Fine Arts from 1863 to 1867, then in Wilhelm von Dietz's studio at the Munich Fine Arts Academy. In 1882, he moved to Paris and exhibited almost every year at the Salon des Artistes français. Exhibited in 1900 (cat. no. 1358), our painting takes up the subject of his first success at the Paris Salon the year he arrived (cat. no. 2685), a huge canvas depicting The Kiss of the Siren, now in Indianapolis. This time framed vertically, Wertheimer depicted a fantastical sea that seemed to belong more to the realm of dreams than to any specific mythology. In an eerie setting of a night-time storm, a sailor leans overboard to embrace a mermaid whose alabaster-white body blends elegantly with the undulating foam of the waves.