A fine carved walnut figure of an alpine hunter by Johann Huggler of Brienz, the pre-eminent master of the Swiss Black Forest carving tradition, stamped with his initials JH to the rear of the boot, circa 1870.
The hunter stands at ease on a naturalistic rocky outcrop, a bearded man of the mountains caught in a moment of rest rather than pursuit. He wears a hat dressed with traditional alpine flowers, an open jacket over a buttoned waistcoat, breeches, and tall boots, a mountaineering staff planted against the rocks in his right hand, a coiled rope slung over his shoulder, and a binocular case carried at his hip. The carving holds its quality through every surface: the varied texturing of jacket, waistcoat, and breeches, the weave of the coiled rope, the individually rendered stones of the base, and above all the face, alert, weathered, and fully characterized, a portrait of a type Huggler knew from life in the Bernese Oberland.
The rear of the hunter's boot bears a stamped JH, the mark Johann Huggler used in the early period of his career, before the Huggler family began retailing their own work. Stamped examples from these years are rare, and the mark places the figure firmly in the 1870s, the decade of Huggler's finest independent carving. Huggler stands at the summit of the Brienz school; his works were shown at the great international exhibitions of the nineteenth century, and signed or stamped examples consistently represent the highest standard of the tradition. We have had the privilege of handling deeply personal works by Huggler, and the present figure shows the same authority brought to a subject at the heart of alpine life.
Dimensions: 19"height
Condition: Very good overall.
Literature
Jay Arenski, Simon Daniels, and Michael Daniels, Swiss Carvings: The Art of the Black Forest, 1820–1940 (2006).
A fine carved walnut figure of an alpine hunter by Johann Huggler of Brienz, the pre-eminent master of the Swiss Black Forest carving tradition, stamped with his initials JH to the rear of the boot, circa 1870.
The hunter stands at ease on a naturalistic rocky outcrop, a bearded man of the mountains caught in a moment of rest rather than pursuit. He wears a hat dressed with traditional alpine flowers, an open jacket over a buttoned waistcoat, breeches, and tall boots, a mountaineering staff planted against the rocks in his right hand, a coiled rope slung over his shoulder, and a binocular case carried at his hip. The carving holds its quality through every surface: the varied texturing of jacket, waistcoat, and breeches, the weave of the coiled rope, the individually rendered stones of the base, and above all the face, alert, weathered, and fully characterized, a portrait of a type Huggler knew from life in the Bernese Oberland.
The rear of the hunter's boot bears a stamped JH, the mark Johann Huggler used in the early period of his career, before the Huggler family began retailing their own work. Stamped examples from these years are rare, and the mark places the figure firmly in the 1870s, the decade of Huggler's finest independent carving. Huggler stands at the summit of the Brienz school; his works were shown at the great international exhibitions of the nineteenth century, and signed or stamped examples consistently represent the highest standard of the tradition. We have had the privilege of handling deeply personal works by Huggler, and the present figure shows the same authority brought to a subject at the heart of alpine life.
Dimensions: 19"height
Condition: Very good overall.
Literature
Jay Arenski, Simon Daniels, and Michael Daniels, Swiss Carvings: The Art of the Black Forest, 1820–1940 (2006).
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