The expectation

Painted in 1912, 'The Expectation' belonged to a group of late Symbolist works Vogeler produced in the years immediately before the First World War, when a mood of anticipation and unease had entered his imagery. The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg, which holds this canvas, is Germany's most comprehensive museum of German cultural history; its collection of turn-of-the-century painting contextualises Vogeler's work within the national tradition he both participated in and eventually rejected. Expectation as a subject is deeply characteristic: Vogeler's figures — almost invariably women — were habitually shown waiting, watching, or turned inward in contemplation. Whether this expressed a general Symbolist mood of longing or something more personal about the artist's life and relationships is a question his biographers have debated.

The mature Vogeler technique is fully evident here: smooth oil glazes building a refined, luminous surface; linear precision drawing the figure with controlled elegance; a palette of cool, slightly desaturated tones creating the atmosphere of suspension and quiet longing that the subject demands.