Jakob Gsell

Friedrich Jakob Gsell (* 1812 in Bischwiller ; † September 20, 1871 in Vienna ) was a wool merchant and art collector.

Life

Rudolf von Alt: Schmöllerlgasse in Vienna with the Gsells house (1866)

Jakob Gsell had acquired a considerable fortune with the wool trade and was able to withdraw from the business at an early stage. He settled in Vienna and founded one of the most important private painting collections in Vienna, the Gsell Gallery, in his Gothic house at Schmöllerlgasse 3 from 1849 . In the foreword to his 1872 catalog, the important Viennese art dealer Georg Plach gives a brief outline of the history of the creation of the Gsells collection, which began with the acquisition of two paintings by Verheyden in the Baranowskische Galerie auction led by Plach in 1849. At the auction, the Counts Festetitschen gallery of Count Samuel Festetics de Tolna 1859 broke the ice, the main works of this auction went to two bidders on Gsell and art collector Dr. Stars. This laid the foundation for the later Galerie Gsell collection , which at his death comprised 600 oil paintings alone. Gsell even well-nourished hopes for a foundation of his collection to his hometown of Strasbourg and the city of Vienna were dashed after his death and the gallery Gsell was over several days by a large turn of Georg Plach in from March 14, 1872 Künstlerhaus Wien conducted Smash auction. In addition to the 600 oil paintings, over 1,000 other lots were sold, consisting of drawings, oil studies, watercolors, etchings and antiques.

Gsell was a great patron of the painter Rudolf von Alt .

Paintings shown in the 1872 catalog

Franz Hals : portrait of a man , lot 37; since 2003 in the Liechtenstein Museum , Vienna
Rembrandt : Portrait of a Man (1634), lot 87.
Francesco Francia : Portrait of Bishop Altobello Averoldi , lot 152
Jacopo Tintoretto : Portrait of a Senator , Lot 170
Titian : Portrait of Pope Paul III. (1543), lot 177
Velásquez : portrait of Philip II of Spain , lot 182

literature

Georg Plach : Auction of the large gallery and the other art collections of Mr. FJ Gsell, in Vienna. Vienna 1872 = Vente aux encheres publiques de la Galerie de tableaux et des collections d'objets d'art aylant apparteny a MF J Gsell , Vienne 1872 ( digitized ).
Wilhelm von Bode : The Gsell Gallery in Vienna . In: Zeitschrift für Bildende Kunst 7, 1872, pp. 181–186.
Ludwig Julius Fränkel: Gsell, Jakob . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 49, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, p. 615.
Gsell Friedrich Jakob. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 98.

Web links

Commons : Jakob Gsell - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Sámuel Graf Festetics de Tolna (* 1806 in Budapest, † 1862 in Vienna)
↑ Walter Koschatzky: Rudolf von Alt: with a collection of works by the Alt painter family of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2001, p. 225 ff.

personal data
SURNAME	Gsell, Jakob
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Gsell, Friedrich Jakob (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Wool merchant and Viennese art collector
DATE OF BIRTH	1812
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bischwiller
DATE OF DEATH	September 20, 1871
Place of death	Vienna

[1] Sámuel Graf Festetics de Tolna (* 1806 in Budapest, † 1862 in Vienna)

[2] Walter Koschatzky: Rudolf von Alt: with a collection of works by the Alt painter family of Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich AG , Böhlau Verlag, Vienna 2001, p. 225 ff.