Alberich und die Rheintöchter

Alberich und die Rheintöchter (Alberich and the Rhine Maidens) of 1865, in the Führermuseum collection, depicts the opening scene of Wagner's Das Rheingold — the dwarf Alberich's pursuit of the Rhine Maidens who guard the magical gold of the Rhine, his humiliation at their mockery, and his decision to renounce love in order to seize the gold. Wagner's Ring Cycle, whose first complete performance was still a decade away at this point (Bayreuth, 1876), was already generating enormous cultural excitement in German-speaking Europe. Makart's engagement with the Wagnerian subject in 1865 places him among the earliest visual artists to respond to Wagner's mythological universe. The subject's combination of water, sensuous female figures, and mythological drama was well suited to Makart's aesthetic priorities. The Führermuseum provenance reflects Nazi cultural investment in Wagnerian mythology as a cornerstone of German national identity.

The underwater Rhine setting requires Makart to manage the interaction between figures and water — a technically demanding passage that required careful control of reflected light and the partial obscuring of forms through the watery medium. The Rhine Maidens as water spirits offered opportunity for the loose, fluid brushwork in hair and drapery that Makart favored, while Alberich's more earthbound figure provides a contrasting note of physical solidity.