Cinderella

Franz von Stuck was a German painter, sculptor, printmaker, and architect. He was best known for his paintings of ancient mythology. His seductive female nudes are a prime example of popular Symbolist content. Stuck paid much attention to the frames for his paintings and generally designed them himself with such careful use of panels, gilt carving, and inscriptions that the frames must be considered as an integral part of the overall piece. Although gaining initial popularity, by the time of his death Stuck's importance as an artist in his own right had almost been forgotten; his art seemed old-fashioned and irrelevant to a generation that had endured World War I. Stuck's reputation languished until the late 1960s when a renewed interest in Art Nouveau brought him to attention once more.

In 1899 when von Stuck painted this painting, the Cinderella fairy tale was highly propagated thanks to the German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, who published their book of folk tales in 1812 and 1819. The tale is called Aschenputtel (Cinderella in English translations). The Grimm version is very intense; Cinderella's father did not die and the stepsisters mutilate their feet to fit in the golden slipper. There is no fairy godmother, but rather help comes from a wishing tree that the heroine planted on her mother's grave. In the second edition of their collection (1819), the Grimms supplemented the original 1812 version with a coda in which the stepsisters suffer a terrible punishment for their cruelty.

Anyway, it's a beautiful portrait, isn't it?

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P.P.S. Here is another absolutely amazing painting by Franz von Stuck—Lucifer. Check it out! And as we are talking about Cinderella, here you have 10 awesome pairs of shoes from the Victoria & Albert collection!  :-D