Klinger, Max (mäks klĭng`ər), 1857–1920, German painter, sculptor, and etcher. Before 1886 he produced cycles of original and somewhat morbidly imaginative etchings, such as Deliverances of Sacrificial Victims Told in Ovid and Brahms-Phantasie. From 1886 to 1894 Klinger devoted himself primarily to painting, usually on a grandiose scale. Among his paintings are Judgment of Paris and Christ on Olympus (both: Vienna). After 1894 he worked predominantly in sculpture, his most successful medium. Notable examples are Salome, Cassandra, and the dramatic polychromed statue of Beethoven (all: Leipzig) and the bust of Nietzsche (Weimar).

Klinger, Max

(born Feb. 18, 1857, Leipzig, Ger.—died July 5, 1920, near Naumburg) German painter, sculptor, and printmaker. He is known for his use of symbol, fantasy, and dreamlike situations, reflecting a late-19th-century awareness of psychological depths. His vivid, frequently morbid imaginings and his interest in the gruesome and grotesque can be seen in his Goyaesque etchings. He is best known for a series of pen-and-ink drawings called Series upon the Theme of Christ and Fantasies upon the Finding of a Glove, which tells a strange parable of a hapless young man and his obsessive involvement with a woman's elbow-length glove. He also created controversial treatments of religious themes. In his later years he worked primarily in sculpture. He had a deep influence on many artists, including Edvard Munch, Käthe Kollwitz, Max Ernst, and Giorgio de Chirico.