Alexander von Bensa

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Dragoons of Regiment No. 3 on the march.
Skirmish between Imperial and Royal Hussars and Prussian Cuirassiers in the Battle of Königgrätz
The battle at pig skulls.

Alexander Ritter von Bensa (born July 15, 1820 in Vienna ; † January 1, 1902 there ) was an Austrian genre and battle painter.

life and work

As an autodidact, Bensa only turned to painting later in his life. Although he had not studied at the Vienna Academy , he was popular with his clients from the circles of the Viennese court nobility and the upper middle class and enjoyed numerous commissions. Bensa painted a number of depictions from wartime life, which achieved recognition and high prices. For example, acquired Archduke Joseph Ferdinand the withdrawal of Hradec Kralove and the Battle of pig skulls (now in the Museum of Military History in Vienna), numerous other paintings of I. Emperor Franz Joseph bought. The Battle of Tannenberg came into the possession of Archduke Wilhelm ; other works were in turn acquired for the collection of Duke August von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha .

Bensa painted the figure staffage on several landscape paintings by the painter Adolf Obermüllner , for example on the North Pole pictures and those that were made there after the occupation campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878 . Bensa has repeatedly sent exhibitions from the Austrian Art Association and the Vienna Künstlerhaus . His pictures from Hungarian folk life also became known. In the choice of his motifs and, to some extent, in the mood of his smaller paintings, Alexander von Bensa followed August von Pettenkofen's style . Bensa usually signed his pictures with de Bensa and only very rarely dated them.

In 1930 the "Bensasteig" was named after him in the XIV. Viennese district of Penzing .

Works (excerpt)

  • Battle of pig skulls . Oil on wood, around 1870, 26 × 40 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.
  • Remounting - horse sampling in Hungary . Oil on wood, around 1870, 37 × 58 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.
  • Skirmish between Imperial and Royal Hussars and Prussian Cuirassiers in the Battle of Königgrätz on July 3, 1866 . Oil on wood, around 1870, 26 × 40 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.
  • Dragoons of the Austro-Hungarian Dragoon Regiment No. 3 on the march . Oil on wood, around 1870, 37 × 58 cm, Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna.

literature

  • Ulrich Thieme (ed.): General lexicon of visual artists from antiquity to the present . Leipzig, 1912.

Web links

Commons : Alexander von Bensa  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Thieme (ed.), General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present. Leipzig, 1909, III, 349 f.
personal data
SURNAME Bensa, Alexander von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bensa, Alexander Ritter von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian genre and battle painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 15, 1820
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH January 1, 1902
Place of death Vienna