Josef Prokopp

Postcard from Josef Prokopp: Summer vacation Thunau am Kamp - Josef Asenbaum's Gasthof, around 1920.

Josef Prokopp (born February 13, 1872 in Vienna , † May 21, 1952 in Vienna) was an Austrian artist, picture postcard painter and publisher of picture postcards .

life and work

Josef Prokopp was born as the son of an innkeeper in Vienna- Favoriten . From 1899 to 1905 he worked as a picture postcard painter for the renowned Munich postcard publisher Hans Pernat . Pernat mainly produced postcards based on washed ink drawings. After Prokopp's return to Vienna, he founded his own postcard publisher, the specialty house for artist postcards , through which he almost exclusively sold cards made by himself using the technique he had learned in Munich. In his studio, which was in Vienna- Gersthof until 1915 and then in Vienna- Kaisermühlen until his death , he produced well over 1,000 different topographical motifs from all over Austria. Prokopp did not visit most of the places he depicted himself, but used photographic postcards from other manufacturers as a template. This is why his motifs are often distorted in perspective, which is what makes his postcards particularly attractive. Since he also produced motifs from small towns - often on behalf of local general merchants and innkeepers - his views are still very popular among collectors of postcards.

literature

• Prokopp, Josef. In: Günter Formary: Philocartie from AZ. Interesting facts about postcards / illustrated postcards . o. O. 2011, p. 105. (Available online at: http://www.maximaphilie.de/Philokartie/Glossar_AK_4_11.pdf ).
• Gerhard Stumpp: Pernat postcards . In: AK-Express , No. 122 (2007), pp. 23-27, No. 123 (2007), pp. 21-27, No. 128 (2008), pp. 51-56, No. 130 (2009 ), Pp. 22–26, here: No. 130 (2009), p. 24.

Web links

• Postcards from Josef Prokopp in the topographical collection of the Lower Austrian regional library.