Josefine Swoboda

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Josefine Swoboda (born January 29, 1861 in Vienna ; † October 27, 1924 there ) was an Austrian painter and graphic artist . She was a portraitist at European royal courts and court painter to Queen Victoria of England .

biography

Josepha Maria Swoboda, known to her family as Josefine or Pipsl, was the third child of the portrait and genre painter Eduard Swoboda (1814–1902), known since the Biedermeier period, and his second wife Josefine (1839–1906), daughter of the Viennese lithographer Leopold Müller (1897– 1862), born. Her paternal uncle was the landscape and animal painter Rudolf Swoboda the Elder (1819–1859), an older brother was the famous oriental and portrait painter Rudolf Swoboda the Younger (1859–1914).

She attended elementary school and received her first painting lessons from her father. In 1878 she entered the arts and crafts school, now the University of Applied Arts Vienna , as an intern and attended the class for figurative drawing and painting until 1886. In 1879 and 1880 her teacher was Ferdinand Laufberger , after his death she studied with Julius Victor Berger , focusing on watercolor portraits. In 1878 she received her first commissioned work, Constantin von Wurzbach wrote in his Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich 1880 to the 19-year-old: "Your excellent work is quickly accepted and the 19-year-old artist is entitled to the most beautiful hopes."

Svoboda's works were mainly watercolors, mostly portraits and (less) genre scenes and still lifes. She also mastered miniature painting. She often worked with photographs as a painting template.

From 1886 Rudolf Swoboda had already become a court painter at the English court, in 1888 she sent samples of her painting skills to London and in 1890 at the age of 29 herself became court painter to Queen Victoria. Her pictures can still be seen today in the Royal Collection in Windsor Castle , a total of 28 watercolors, 13 of which have also been preserved by her own hand. In 1886, works by her were shown for the first time in the Künstlerhaus Vienna , where she was listed first as an amateur in 1886, then as a corresponding member of the Watercolorist Club . Until 1921, the Künstlerhaus regularly showed her works at annual and permanent exhibitions. Further exhibitions arose from 1888 in Hamburg ( portrait of Princess Heinrich of Prussia ), Munich and Berlin. In Vienna she took part as a guest in the exhibitions of the Group of Eight Artists , which took place every one to two years from 1900 to 1909 in the Kunstsalon Pisko , one of the most important art salons in Fin de Siècle Vienna , founded in 1895 by Gustav Pisko (1866 -1911).

Josefine Swoboda remained unmarried and lived all her life in her father's house "Zum Wollbaum" in Vienna VI , built in 1818 by the court architect Karl Ehmann . , Gumpendorfer Strasse 57, on which she owned inheritance after the death of her father and brother Rudolf. She died on October 27, 1924 at the age of 63 of a heart defect and was buried on October 20, 1924 in the family grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

Modern reception

After her death, Josefine Swoboda fell into oblivion, in 1995 Delia Millar presented the works available there in the catalog raisonné for watercolor painting of the Royal Collection, but it was not until 2004 that an extensive biography of the life and work of the art writer Herbert Zemen was published. Mostly her name was mentioned in connection with the individual members of the artist families Swoboda and Müller, without, apart from the genealogical aspect, going into her own artistic work. Posthumously in 1930, under the title Franz Joseph's last portrait session, the anecdote appeared that Emperor Franz Joseph I doubled the fee for his miniature portrait, since "... it is not the case that the frame should be valued higher than the work of art."

Works (selection)

As of 2004, the catalog raisonné includes 15 works in museum ownership, 28 watercolors in the Royal Collection and 223 other titled works, mainly determined from the books of the Künstlerhaus.

Works in collections

  • Historical Museum of the City of Vienna
    • Portrait: Excellenz Dr. Anton von Banhans , 1886, oil on canvas, 92 × 69 cm
    • Portrait: Eduard Swoboda , 1885, oil on canvas, 100 × 74 cm
    • Portrait of a woman , no year, pencil, 11.5 × 14.5 cm, as a caricature
    • Portrait: Charlotte Krenn , 1911, pencil, above watercolor, 30.6 × 23.7 cm
    • Self-portrait , 1880, pencil, 30.4 × 21 cm, as a caricature
    • Portrait: Carl Hasch , no year, pencil, 30.3 × 28.8 cm
    • Portrait: Wilhelmine Weisse , no year, watercolor, recorded as a war loss
  • Graphic Collection Albertina , Vienna
    • Sewing woman with a Dutch bonnet , no year, chalk drawing
    • Four hand studies , without year, chalk drawing
    • Flower piece , without year, watercolor
    • Window corner , without year, watercolor
    • Motif from Hallstatt , without year, watercolor
  • Royal Collection , Royal Library, Windsor Castle, England

literature

Web links

Commons : Josefine Swoboda  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Zemen: The portrait painter Josefine Swoboda. 1861-1924. Life and work. Vienna 2004, p. 1.
  2. ^ A b Constantin von Wurzbach : Swoboda, Josepha . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 41st part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1880, p. 84 ( digitized version ).
  3. ^ Wladimir Aichelburg : Das Wiener Künstlerhaus 1861–2001. Vienna 2003 ( wladimir-aichelburg.at ).
  4. ↑ Article: Eight artists and their guests. In: The Bund. Volume 1, No. 3 (1906).
  5. ^ Ch. Gruber:  Swoboda, Josefine (1861-1924), painter. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 14, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012–, ISBN 978-3-7001-7312-0 , p. 87 f. (Direct links on p. 87 , p. 88 ).
  6. ↑ Eight artists and their guests (exhibition in Salon Pisko). In: New women's life. 14th vol., No. 1, 1902 ( literature.at ).
  7. ^ Elise Srnka:  Franz Joseph's last portrait session. In:  Badener Zeitung , 23 August 1930, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt
  8. ^ Herbert Zemen: The portrait painter Josefine Swoboda. 1861-1924. Life and work. Vienna 2004, pp. 143–152.
personal data
SURNAME Swoboda, Josefine
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Swoboda, Josepha Maria (full name); Swoboda, Josephine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter and graphic artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 1924
Place of death Vienna