Johann Kautsky

Stage design for the opera The Queen of Sheba

Idyll on the lake shore, signed J. Kautsky, 1896

Idylle am Stadtgraben, signed J. Kautsky, 1864

Johann Kautsky , actually Jan Vaclav Kautsky (born September 14, 1827 Prague ; † September 4, 1896 in Sankt Gilgen ; full name: Johann Baptist Wenzel Kautsky ) was a Bohemian stage and landscape painter . He was co-owner of the theater decoration painting studio "Brioschi, Burghart and Kautsky", mainly in Vienna .

Life

Johann Kautsky studied figurative painting at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts from 1844 to 1850, first under Christian Ruben and from 1847 onwards in the class of Max Haushofer landscape painting. In 1850 he studied with Johann Wilhelm Schirmer in Düsseldorf . From 1850 to 1852 he was a member of the Düsseldorf artist association Malkasten .

As a result, Kautsky worked as a theater decoration painter in Prague. In 1854 he married the actress and writer Minna Jaich , daughter of the decorative painter Peter Anton Jaich. They had a daughter and three sons: Karl Kautsky (1854–1938), Fritz Kautsky (* 1857) and Hans Joseph Wilhelm Kautsky (1864–1937). The latter in turn had three sons, including the chemist Hans Kautsky (1891–1966) and the set designer Robert Kautsky (1895–1962).

In 1863 Johann Kautsky was appointed decorative painter at the Vienna Court Opera . In 1864 he became a co-owner of the successful studio of the theater painter Carlo Brioschi . A few years later the studio was expanded by a third partner with the Viennese court painter Hermann Burghart . The company subsequently operated under the name “Brioschi, Burghart and Kautsky, kuk Hoftheatermaler in Vienna” and employed dozens of workers such as carpenters , locksmiths , mechanics and clerks as well as numerous painters such as Georg Janny , Konrad Petrides , Leopold Rothaug and Ferdinand Brunner , Alfons Mucha and Anton Paul Heilmann . The studio received orders at home and abroad and supplied, among others, houses in Germany, the Czech Republic, England and America ( Metropolitan Opera ). Among other things, the studio was responsible for the sets for the Vienna premiere of Tristan and Isolde .

After Brioschi and Burghart withdrew from active management, Johann Kautsky continued to run the company under its original name until he retired in 1892. In that year, Kautsky paid off his co-owners and handed the company over to his two sons Hans and Fritz. They ran the company together with the Italian painter Francesco Rottonara (1848–1938) under the name “Kautsky's Sons and Rottonara” for a few decades.

Exhibitions (selection)

• 1872: Annual exhibition, Künstlerhaus Vienna
• 1888: Anniversary exhibition Künstlerhaus Vienna
• 1890: Annual exhibition, Künstlerhaus Vienna
• 1892: December exhibition at Künstlerhaus Wien
• 1894: December exhibition at Künstlerhaus Wien

literature

• Bořivoj Srba: The set designer Jan Václav Kautský and his work for the Czech stage . In: Sborník prací filozofické fakulty brněnské univerzity - Studia minora facultatis philosophicae Universitatis bruensis roč . Year 41–42, No. 27-28 . Masarykova univerzita v Brně, Brno 1993, ISBN 80-210-0819-9 , p. 69-96 ( [1] ).
• Robin Thurlow Lacy: Kautsky, Johann . In: A biographical dictionary of scenographers: 500 BC to 1900 AD Greenwood Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-313-27429-0 , pp. 340-341 .
• Kautsky Jan. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 3, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1965, p. 274.
• Kautsky, Johann (Jan) . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 20 : Kaufmann – Knilling . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 35 .
• Kautsky, Johann. In: Friedrich von Boetticher: painter works of the 19th century. Contribution to art history. Volume 1/2, sheets 31–61: Heideck – Mayer, Louis. Ms. v. Boetticher's Verlag, Dresden 1895, p. 665 ( archive.org ).

Web links

Commons : Johann Kautsky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bettina Baumgärtel , Sabine Schroyen, Lydia Immerheiser, Sabine Teichgröb: Directory of foreign artists. Nationality, residence and studies in Düsseldorf. In: Bettina Baumgärtel (Hrsg.): The Düsseldorf School of Painting and its international impact 1819–1918. Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86568-702-9 , Volume 1, p. 433.