Otto Barth (painter)

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Self-portrait

Otto Barth (born October 3, 1876 in Vienna ; † August 9, 1916 there ) was an Austrian academic painter, graphic artist and alpinist.

Life

Otto Barth was born as the second son of the art and ornamental gardener Johann Barth and his wife Anna (birthplace: Schleifmühlgasse 11, Vienna-Wieden ). He was considered physically weak in his childhood and was often ill. Only intensive activity in the mountains is said to have helped him to health and resilience. According to his talent, he attended a drawing school and later the academy.

Barth was close friends with Gustav (Gustl) Jahn , as he was an enthusiastic mountaineer and painter. Both went on many tours together; several of them were first ascents. Both are described very differently in their nature, Jahn as the "naive sun child" and Barth as the "gloomy one", who was often dissatisfied with his painting-technical results and whose pictures are ascribed a trace of melancholy. In his obituary, Gustav Schmidt sees these events more at the beginning of Barth's career. By the time of the Hagenbund , at the latest , he attested to a high level of self-confidence and creative power in terms of shape and color.

Otto Barth founded an artist group called “Phalanx” and later became a member of the Hagenbund in Vienna.

The End

While his friend Jahn fell fatally three years later on a mountain tour, Otto Barth also died early at the age of 39, albeit of an illness. Initially, there was an increasing number of heart problems. The doctors attributed signs of calcification to creeping poisoning from lead-white paint in the studio, where the painter used to sleep. Distinct visual disturbances were later interpreted as a brain tumor.

Works

Morning prayer of the mountain guides on the summit of the Grossglockner (1911)

Among the large number of paintings, it is worth highlighting:

  • Abandoned Alm . This atmospheric work represented Austrian art at the International Exhibition in Rome;
  • Morning prayer by the Führer on the summit of the Grossglockner (1911). From 1915 in the Alpine Museum in Munich , today in the Alpine Club Museum of the Austrian Alpine Club, Innsbruck ;
  • The last course and many others went into private hands;
  • Easter Sunday in Rauris , acquired from the Imperial and Royal Ministry of Education.

Barth received several orders to decorate public buildings, such as the construction of the new train station in Salzburg and the newly built "Herzoghof" hotel in Baden near Vienna and many others. His graphic contributions to alpine magazines, book illustrations, catalogs and advertising materials can hardly be counted.

memory

In addition to the preserved sculptures, the so-called “Malersteig” on the Rax near Vienna commemorates this friendship. The two made the tour together for the first time in 1901.

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto Barth  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Soyka: Der Alpenmaler Otto Barth , p. 7.
  2. ↑ a b c see web link short biography Otto Barth.
  3. ↑ a b see literature Gustav Schmidt: Obituary for the death of Otto Barth .
  4. ↑ Small messages. (...) From the Alpine Museum in Munich (...). In:  Der Naturfreund , born 1915, XIX. Volume, p. 97, top left. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dna

Remarks

  1. ↑ Barth, in Waidhofen an der Ybbs as a reserve officer with military service at the ward of Russian officer prisoners , was brought to the garrison hospital in Vienna at the end of June 1916 due to illness, where he succumbed six weeks later. - Otto Barth † , p. 198.
    According to the death report, Barth was last ranked k. k. First Lieutenant a. D. held. - See: Little Chronicle. (...) deaths. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, August 12, 1916, p. 10, bottom right. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  2. ↑ The contribution by the academic painter Otto Barth that formed the back wall of the breakfast room consisted of a 4.5 m high and 11.4 m wide glass painting, made by Tuch in Vienna . - See: On the opening of the Herzoghof. In:  Badener Zeitung , April 27, 1910, p. 4, center. (Online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / bzt
personal data
SURNAME Barth, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian painter and alpinist
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1916
Place of death Vienna