45. Max Oppenheimer (MOPP)
(1885-1954)
The Rosé Quartet

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Oppenheimer, The Rosé Quartet

The Rosé Quartet

Etching, 1932, Pabst 69, 220 x 235 mm., edition of 100. Superb impression, pencil signed, on cream colored japan paper with good margins and in fresh condition. Oppenheimer’s painting of the same subject is in the State Gallery, Nuremberg, and he did several etchings of the group, of which this is most complete and clearly the most effective. The Rosé Quartet was founded by the violinist Arnold Rosé in Vienna in 1882 and continued performing for 55 years (until 1938) with Rosé the first violinist for that entire period. At the time of this etching, the other members were Paul Fischer, second violin, Anton Ruzicka, viola and Friedrich Buxbaum, cello. The group premiered several works of Brahms as well as the first and second quartets of Arnold Schoenberg and, with two other members of the Vienna Philharmonic, Schoenberg’s Verklaerte Nacht. Oppenheimer was drawn to musical subjects in both painting and prints and his close associations with musicians led to more accurate and more effective representations of them than those of most of his contemporaries. A brilliant print.