Reproduction hand painted of the painting
Susanna in the pool (Stuck)

In a radically different approach to the same myth, Franz von Stuck’s “Susanna in the pool” is a dreamlike and vaporous composition. Still in a very vertical (long) format, the artist depicts the young naked woman standing in a pool of dark water with rippling golden reflections. Her attitude is chaste, hands crossed in front of her, looking away towards a bright yellow wall in the background. On either side of this wall, the ghostly silhouettes of the two elders, dressed in blue tunics, take shape like menacing specters. This canvas illustrates von Stuck’s mastery in using color (the striking contrast between midnight blue, golden yellow, and flesh tones) to establish a climate that is both magical and agonizing, very characteristic of symbolism.