Hans ZATZKA (1859-1945) ~ Through the Keyhole ✿

Hans Zatzka (Austrian, 1859-1945) A Look through the Keyhole (Un Regard par le Trou de la Serrure) 1890-1900

In this alluring oils on canvas and oils on panel by Hans Zatzka, entitled Through the Keyhole, a beauty casually disrobes surrounded by love tokens from her paramour. Viewed as though through a keyhole thanks to the figural frame, this exquisite work exemplifies the voyeurism that emerged in the staid atmosphere of Victorian society. Zatzka was a painter of both the saintly and the seductive.

Femme en déshabillé, vue par le trou de la serrure, Huile sur panneau

A Fine and Charming Oil on Canvas Titled "Through the Keyhole" depicting a young beauty seated on a bed and getting undressed as seen through a keyhole, within a gild-wood and gesso frame. Signed: Zatzka (lower left). Circa: 1890-1900.

Keyhole paintings developed in the repressive atmosphere of Victoria society. Thanks in part to the dominance of Evangelical Christianity and partly to Queen Victoria herself, whose prudishness and mourning for her late husband, Prince Albert, remained unmitigated for decades, the Victorian relationship with the body was at best intensely problematic.

A Fine and Charming Oil on Panel Titled "Through the Keyhole" depicting a semi-nude young beauty sensually standing in her boudoir and getting undressed as seen through a keyhole, within a gild-wood and gesso frame. Signed: H. Zatzka (lower right). Circa: 1890-1900.

Born in 1859 in Vienna, Zatzka became a pupil at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Vienna between 1877 and 1882. In 1880, at the age of 20, he was awarded the Golden Fügermedal for services to the city Vienna. He made several trips to Italy, and began to work as a freelance fresco painter, both for residences, hospitals and especially churches.