Otto Primavesi

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Otto Primavesi (* 27. February 1868 in Olomouc , Moravia , † 8. February 1926 in Vienna ) was a Moravian-Austrian banker , industrialist and patron of Anton Hanak , Gustav Klimt and Josef Hoffmann , who with his commitment to the Vienna Workshop de facto ruined.

biography

His ancestors came from Lombardy . The family moved to Olomouc at the end of the 18th century and assumed a leading position in the financial and economic world of Moravia. Otto Primavesi and his brother jointly held the two-thirds majority of the Moravian Sugar Factory Association, the flax spinning mill in Lichten Werden , the jute spinning mill in Würbenthal , and a bank in Olomouc.

After the departure of the first financier Fritz Wärndorfer , Otto Primavesi took over the artisans' cooperative, which had gone into liquidation, in 1915 with the support of his cousin Robert Primavesi . Otto Primavesi previously commissioned Josef Hoffmann with the modernization of his bank in Olomouc, then with the design of two rooms in his Olomouc villa and the construction of a country house in Winkelsdorf .

The wife Eugenia Primavesi , née Butschek (1874–1963), played a special role in promoting her husband's art . In 1912 and 1913, her husband commissioned Gustav Klimt to make portraits of his nine-year-old daughter Mäda Gertrude Primavesi (also called "Mäda"; Olmütz 1903-2000) and his wife Eugenia.

Eugenia Primavesi was a Viennese actress who met Otto Primavesi during a performance in Olomouc and married in 1894. The marriage of Otto and Eugenia Primavesi had four children.

Gustav Klimt : Portrait of Eugenia Primavesi (1913–1914)
Gustav Klimt : Portrait of Mäda Gertrude Primavesi (1912)

The Wiener Werkstätte was under the management of Otto Primavesi from 1915 to 1925. Regardless of the initial expansion, such as the establishment of an agency in Berlin (1916) and branches in Marienbad (1917), Zurich (1917), Velden (1922) and New York (1922), there were again major financial difficulties from 1918 onwards.

Eugenia Primavesi in particular, however, was unconditionally committed to the elitist handicraft line of the Wiener Werkstätten. Otto Primavesi subsequently resigned as managing director on June 25, 1925 and parted ways with Eugenia, but transferred his shares in the Wiener Werkstätte to her. Almost a year later, in May 1926, the Wiener Werkstätte opened the compensation procedure. Otto Primavesi had already died in Vienna in February 1926, and in April 1926 the Primavesi bank in Olomouc went bankrupt.

literature

  • Tobias G. Natter : The world of Klimt, Schiele and Kokoschka. Collectors and patrons. DuMont, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-8321-7258-0 .
  • Herta Neiß : Wiener Werkstätte. Between myth and economic reality. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2004, ISBN 3-205-77147-8 .
  • Claudia Klein-Primavesi: The Primavesi family. Art and fashion from the Wiener Werkstätte. Klein-Primavesi, Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-200-00790-7 . (Contains family chronicle).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vila Primavesi, Olomouc. History of vila Primavesi , accessed June 20, 2013.
  2. ^ Mäda Primavesi in the Metropolitan Museum of Art , acquisition no. 64,148, accessed June 20, 2013.
personal data
SURNAME Primavesi, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian banker, industrialist and patron
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Olomouc
DATE OF DEATH February 8, 1926
Place of death Vienna