(Freistadt 1803–1887 Eferding)
Lumpfish - Aplysia depilans, titled and with a legend: “Er wohnt vorzüglich in Mittelmeere, und wird öfters durch Stürme an Naples’s Küsten ausgeworfen: Abbildung in natürlicher Grösse. Synonyme: Seelunge, Gifthüttel, Verhaarer”, („He lives preferably in the Mediterrenean sea and through winds is frequently thrown onto the Neapolitan coast: the image in original size. Synonyms: sealungs, ....) signed and dated Aloys Zötl pinxit am 21. July 1841, inscribed with a classification order “Würmer, Tab. VI” (worms, Pl.VI), watercolour on paper, depiction 28 x 36 cm, mounted, framed, a stamp of the Aleš Südböhmische Galerie Budweis (Alšova Jihǒceská Galerie C. Budejovice) and inventory number G - 2776 - B1337 (erased) on the reverse, (Hu)

Provenance:
Aleš Südböhmischen Galerie Budweis; (InvNr. G-2776-B1337), de-inventoried; Dorotheum Prag, 7th March 2009, lot 161;
private collection Austria.

Like his father a dyer by profession, Aloys Zötl lived in Eferding in Upper Austria, which he never left. Between 1832 and 1887 he executed numerous watercolours with mainly fantastical animals but also with anthropological depictions. Zötl dated each sheet precisely with the day of its execution and provided it with a German and a Latin classification in regard of the origin and the characteristics of the species. Zötl owned a comprehensive library with illustrated books related to natural history subjects, journey books and with ethnographical literature which served him as models for his work. Over the time he gave landscapes an enormous appreciation in his watercolours. Instead of depicting his animals in the sober context of an encyclopedic illustration he rendered them with their artificial or exotic habitat, which made them fascinating sheets where scientific meticulousness and artistic fantasy met in a convincing manner. Decades after his death Zötl’s work was re-discovered on the occasion of two auction sales in Paris in 1955 and 1956. André Breton (1896–1966), who wrote the foreword for the auction sales’ catalogues, saw a surrealist aesthetic in Zötl’s work and described it the most splendid animal book that the world has ever seen. Besides the painter Henri Rousseau, Zötl’s work was included in the list of Surrealists established by Breton. Thus, Zötl is the only officially recognised Surrealist, which Austria has ever created. (Compare: Auction sale catalogue Dorotheum, 16th Mav 2002; Franz Reitinger, Aloys Zötl oder die Anmalisierung der Kunst, Vienna 2004, pp. 11, 18, 24, 34, 35, 67, 87, 93, 94, 96 and 108.)