Alfred barley brandy

Alfred Gerstenbrand (born February 18, 1881 in Vienna , † January 7, 1977 in Melk , Lower Austria ) was an Austrian painter , graphic artist , illustrator , writer and caricaturist .

Gerstenbrand studied at the Vienna School of Applied Arts with Felician Myrbach , Kolo Moser and Josef Hoffmann , but because of doubts about his own talent, he took up the job of an official in the Ministry of Finance , which he held until his retirement. At the 1908 art show, his caricatures and ironic portraits of Gustav Klimt and Sigmund Freud attracted attention. He was wounded in the First World War and had to rely on a walking stick for his entire life. In 1918 he was accepted into the Secession and became its vice-president after a long time. Gerstenbrand kept in touch with the Zinkenbach painters' colony and made friends with the Frisch , Gerngross , Heller , Herz-Kestranek and Wiesenthal families , who were on vacation in the Salzkammergut, and later also with the Austrian Foreign Minister Gruber . During the Nazi era , he worked as an exhibition curator for the Nazi regime, but ultimately made contact with the resistance. He worked for the satirical magazine Muskete .

Barley brandy house in St. Gilgen, which John Quincy Adams had imported from Sweden as a prefabricated house.

At the end of the war, Gerstenbrand is said to have saved his adopted home Sankt Gilgen am Wolfgangsee from an imminent attack by US troops and mediated a peaceful handover of the place. After the Second World War , he mostly stayed in St. Gilgen, where, similar to other "pub painters" at the time, he painted murals in the dining room on the first floor in return for weeks of eating in the restaurant "Zum Golden Ochs" and in the "Mozartstüberl". In these works he also portrayed citizens of St. Gilgen and famous holiday guests of the place, such as Clark Gable , Dietrich and Susi Nicoletti .

During his lifetime, Alfred Gerstenbrand was teased by parts of the population (“Prof. Zwickarsch”) because of his conspicuous gait, others affectionately called him “Gerstl”. He remained childless, bequeathed his house in St. Gilgen to his long-time servant and was buried in the local cemetery there. Interest in his work and his person has increased again in recent years.

Alfred Gerstenbrand had already received the medal from the city of Budapest in 1934 and the title of professor in 1935, and in 1951 he was also awarded the Golden Laurel by the Künstlerhaus in Vienna .

Literary works

His own and third-party illustrated publications:

• The people from the 22nd house . Drawn, told and described from childhood memories, 1922.
• The Lamplgasse . Cheerful motley from d. Wiener Vorstadt, 1921.
• Tennis - with a difference! Verse, 1937.
• Engagement in Wyoming . A diary, 1948.
• Soldiers, artists, people and gentlemen . Memories of two old Austrians, 1961. Text by Mirko Jelusich.
• Wine giver and gift recipient . Praise of the Wiener Heurigen, 1962.
• Stories about the Vienna Künstlerhaus . The house and the parties, the hosts, the guests, 1965. Text Mirko Jelusich.

literature

• Ruth Kaltenegger, Helmut Schipani and others: Alfred Gerstenbrand 1881–1977. A century of artistic life. 1881-1977 . Published by Franz Gerstenbrand. Christian Brandstätter Verlag, Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-85033-163-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Alfred Gerstenbrand in the catalog of the German National Library
• Audio recording with Alfred Gerstenbrand in the online archive of the Austrian Mediathek (interview)