When the Nymphenburg Porcelain Factory received a gold medal at the World Exposition in Paris in 1900, it was a sign of an artistic turning point. After all, at previous international trade fairs, German products had only rarely shone as models of an exemplary aesthetic. This porcelain, which can easily be classified as typical of the heyday of Jugendstil, was very obviously recognized alone for its style and not its functional merits. The fact that its creator, painter Hermann Gradl, was not even 20 years old at the time he designed it is typical for the situation in those days. Young artists were galloping to the forefront in Germany, finding a place for themselves in porcelain manufacture as in other fields. Dining table accoutrements played an important role in bringing the new taste in decoration and art – known in French as “Art Nouveau” – into upper middle-class homes. Born in Bavaria, Gradl, who would later achieve dubious fame as Hitler’s favourite painter, created a small yet complex composition made up of a shallow oval bowl sporting representational to slightly abstract motifs whose proportions correspond harmoniously with the outlines of the object. The artist cleverly made use of the vessel’s profile to further enhance the liveliness of the flow of line. The stylized water plants contrast with the naturalistically depicted animals. Each dish naturally features a different motif. Gradl’s service marks the end of the era of historical stylistic plagiarism in

favour of inventive freedom of form.