Tilla Durieux as Circe

Tilla Durieux as Circe (1912), painted on a wood support and now in the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin, is one of Franz von Stuck's most celebrated portraits and one of the great theatrical character-portraits of the Wilhelmine era. Tilla Durieux (1880–1971) was the foremost German-language actress of her generation, celebrated for her performances in Hofmannsthal and Wedekind, and her partnership with dealer Paul Cassirer placed her at the center of Berlin's avant-garde world. Stuck chose to portray her not naturalistically but as the sorceress Circe from the Odyssey — the enchantress who transforms men into beasts — a choice that both flattered his subject's mythic stage presence and aligned with his lifelong preoccupation with dangerous female archetypes. The portrait collapses the distinction between actress and role: Durieux's face is Circe's face, her arresting eyes the tools of her power. The painting became iconic, reproduced across the German press, and cemented Stuck's reputation as the portraitist who could see through his subjects to their essential nature.

Stuck employs a severely compressed palette of cool greens, golden yellows, and black to evoke an otherworldly atmosphere. The sinuous curves of Circe's robe and hair echo the Art Nouveau linearism that Stuck had long absorbed into his otherwise academic method. The smooth wood support allows extremely fine detail in the facial modeling, particularly around the eyes.