FRANZ XAVER SIMM, c.1900

Though a good number of his paintings and illustrations survive today, relatively little information exists on the life of Austrian artist Franz Xaver Simm. Born in 1853, it is known that he spent his school years at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, after which he entered into the studio of the neoclassical painter Anselm Feuerbach where he worked for a brief period before leaving to study under the portraitist Edouard von Engerth. Following this, he travelled to Rome to spend the next five years learning the techniques of the Italian masters, before moving on to Munich where he lived and worked until his death in 1918.

In the Theatre Box shows a group of theatregoers in a private seating area called a box or loge. Seats in a theatre box not only gave the best view of the stage, but also offered an opportunity for theatregoers to display their wealth and social standing before the rest of the audience. Here, the status of the group can be seen in their outfits too; all flaunting fashionable clothes and jewellery. The man at the back of the group holds a pair of opera glasses which he uses to look out over the audience, contributing to the themes of viewing, and of being viewed, that feature in this painting.

In the Theatre Box places the beholder, like the rest of the audience, outside of the box looking up at the group. It creates a division which reflects the rigid social structure of 19th century Europe where the elite rarely shared spaces with those outside of their class, and where social mobility was extremely limited. Franz Xaver Simm often depicted moments from the lives of the wealthy in his work, perhaps in part because it resonated with the upper classes who made up the majority of the art market at this time, but more importantly because of a general fascination for the fashions and behaviours of the rich, one which lives on in the celebrity culture of today.