Lot 157: LEFLER, HEINRICH. 1863-1919. Watercolor, unpublished illustration of Brün

LEFLER, HEINRICH. 1863-1919. Watercolor, unpublished illustration of Brünnhilde (Act III) in Richard Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, for an unrealized book or calendar, 284 x 213 mm, n.d., matted. In Act III of Wagner’s great opera, Brünnhilde orders a funeral pyre for her dead husband Siegfried whom Hagen has slain with his spear: Ruhe, ruhe, du Gott! (Rest, rest, thou God!). The world of the old gods becomes engulfed in flame and flood; and a new one arises ou t of the tumult through Brünnhilde’s undying love of Siegfried. Lefler has captured the deep grief in her eyes at the moment she is about to order that his body be burned.