Alfred Basel

Fighting in the Carpathian Mountains (1915)

After the breakthrough on the Tagliamento (1918)

Storming of the village of Stary Korczyn by the Landsturm Infantry Regiment No. 1

Alfred Basel (born March 23, 1876 in Vienna ; † January 24, 1920 in Dickenau, municipality of Türnitz , Lower Austria ) was an Austrian painter and etcher .

Life

Alfred Basel was the son of a factory owner and studied from 1892–1898 at the Vienna School of Applied Arts under Felician von Myrbach . He went on study trips to Italy and Germany . Basel was a reserve officer of the First World War , served as a first lieutenant until March 1915, participated in the fighting in Galicia with the 4th Army, the offensive against Russian Poland and the Carpathian battles . In autumn 1915 he was decommissioned because of illness as unfit for military service, in December he was accepted as a war painter in the Austro-Hungarian war press headquarters . In 1916 he managed excursions to the Vistula Flotilla , the Carpathian Mountains, Albania , the Isonzo Front and the Ukraine .

Basel only experienced its artistic breakthrough as a war painter ; apart from the art exhibitions in the war press quarter, it was not until 1919 that he exhibited his works for the first time in the winter exhibition of the Vienna Künstlerhaus . Basel dealt intensively with the war events and tried to reproduce its impressions very precisely and in great detail. This concept is reminiscent of Oskar Laske's oeuvre , with which Basel has both biographical and stylistic similarities. Like Laske, Basel renounces any showmanship or pathetic exaggeration and shows approaches to small-figure crowd scenes. His painting, which is characterized by extreme simplicity, remains merely a description that approximates photographic accuracy.

Alfred Basel died on January 24, 1920 as a result of a hunting accident.

Works (excerpt)

Fight in the Carpathian Mountains . Tempera on canvas, 100.5 × 100.5 cm. Army History Museum , Vienna.
After the breakthrough on the Tagliamento . Oil on canvas, 100 × 100 cm. Army History Museum, Vienna.

literature

Liselotte Popelka: From hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914-1918 , Vienna 1981, p. 14 f.

Individual evidence

↑ Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , p. 179.
↑ Liselotte Popelka: From Hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914-1918 . Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna 1981, p. 16.

Web links

Commons : Alfred Basel - Collection of images, videos and audio files

The color of tears - the First World War from the point of view of painters

personal data
SURNAME	Basel, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian painter
DATE OF BIRTH	March 23, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Vienna
DATE OF DEATH	January 24, 1920
Place of death	Dickenau, municipality of Türnitz , Lower Austria

[1] Walter Reichel: "Press work is propaganda work" - Media Administration 1914-1918: The War Press Quarter (KPQ) . Communications from the Austrian State Archives (MÖStA), special volume 13, Studienverlag, Vienna 2016, ISBN 978-3-7065-5582-1 , p. 179.

[2] Liselotte Popelka: From Hurray to the corpse field. Paintings from the war picture collection 1914-1918 . Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, Vienna 1981, p. 16.