signed, dated and inscribed ‘Jank/ Rothenburg [18]99’
black, red and white chalk
47.5 x 38.9 cm

Angelo Jank, born to the painter and stage designer Christian Jank (1883-1888), was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts of Munich from 1891-1896. [1] Soon after graduating, he exhibited with members of the Munich Secession and from 1896 he provided illustrations for the newly established art and literary journal ‘Die Jugend’, an important promotor of German Art Nouveau. Besides his illustrative work, Jank was a teacher at the Women’s Academy of the Munich Artists’ Association from 1899 to 1907 and later became a Professor of Animal Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich in 1922.

While Jank almost exclusively produced equestrian scenes later in his career, his earlier work is more varied. The present drawing was executed in 1899, shortly after he had left the academy, and it demonstrates the artist qualities as a draughtsman and landscape artist. From a bird’s eye perspective, Jank depicted houses along the river Tauber outside of the town walls of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The composition is dynamic, with swirling and dancing lines that vividly render the rooftiles, trees, and river, while the use of white chalk for the plastered walls as well as the pigeons perched on one of the roofs furthermore adds contrast and depth to the composition.

[1] G. Saur, Saur Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker, Munich, 1992, vol. 77, p. 293.