Helene Arnau

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Helene Arnau , (* 1870 in Vienna ; † 1958 there ) was an Austrian landscape , portrait and war painter .

life and work

Biographical data about one of the few women war painters in the Austro-Hungarian Army in the First World War are little known. Helene Arnau was born the daughter of a Viennese court actor who studied sculpture in his youth . She decided to become an artist and studied at the Vienna Academy with Julius von Payer and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Hermann Groeber . Further studies took place at the Karlsruhe Academy under Friedrich Fehr and in Paris under Henri Caro-Delvaille. Study trips across Europe followed. In 1902 she exhibited in the Hagenbund Artists' Association and in 1913 in the Vienna Secession .

In addition to Fritzi Ulreich and Stephanie Hollenstein , Helene Arnau was one of the few war painters in the kuk war press quarter , into which she was admitted in 1917. On December 6, 1917, she wrote to the commander of the war press headquarters, Major General Maximilian Ritter von Hoen , that she “felt it was a great honor and honor to be allowed to go to the front.” Among other things, she was on the Italian front with the 93rd Infantry -Division works as a war painter.

Nothing is known about her further résumé, especially since there are hardly any written sources. Only a few works by Arnau have survived; five oil paintings in the collections of the Vienna Army History Museum have been secured.

Works (excerpt)

literature

  • Liselotte Popelka: The muses were not silent , in: Adalbert-Stifter-Verein (ed.): Muses to the front. Writers and artists in the service of the Austro-Hungarian war propaganda 1914–1918 , Munich, 2003, Part 1 (articles), pp. 64–78.
  • Ilse Krumpöck: Suffragettes or shotgun women? War painters in the First World War , in: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Hrsg.): Viribus Unitis. 1998 annual report of the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum , Vienna 1999, pp. 44–53.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from Helene Arnau to Major General Max Ritter von Hoen, Austrian State Archives / War Archives , KPQ, Cart. 31, f. 13
  2. ↑ Ilse Krumpöck: Suffragettes or gun women? War painters in the First World War , in: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Hrsg.): Viribus Unitis. 1998 Annual Report of the Army History Museum , Vienna, 1999, p. 50
personal data
SURNAME Arnau, Helene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian war painter
DATE OF BIRTH 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 1958
Place of death Vienna