Richard Gerstl

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Self-portrait as a half-act , 1902/04, Leopold Museum , Vienna
Self-portrait as a nude , 1908, Leopold Museum , Vienna
Group picture with Schönberg , 1908, Kunsthaus Zug , Zug
Grave site in the Sieveringen cemetery

Richard Gerstl (born September 14, 1883 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; † November 4, 1908 there ) was an Austrian portrait and landscape painter .

Life

Richard Gerstl came from a wealthy middle-class family of a Jewish stockbroker. He attended the Vienna Piarist High School , which he had to leave because of disciplinary difficulties. Contrary to his father's wishes, Gerstl was interested in the fine arts, but he supported his son when he was accepted at the academy at the age of 15. From 1898 to 1901 and then again in 1904 he attended the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts with Christian Griepenkerl , but offended everywhere with his radical views and his elitist and selfish attitude. 1900–1901 he studied landscape painting with Simon Hollósy in Nagybánya , before taking lessons again in Vienna with Heinrich Lefler (systematic special school for landscape painting).

Gerstl was interested in philosophy , neurology , foreign languages, literature , psychology and music . He established relationships with the composers Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg . After he met Schönberg in 1906 and painted his family, he developed a love affair with his wife Mathilde, which Schönberg soon found out about. The friendship between Gerstl and Schönberg, which was artistically fruitful (Schönberg came to painting through Gerstl himself), was destroyed by Gerstl's relationship with Mathilde, Alexander von Zemlinsky's sister . In the summer of 1908, Schönberg surprised the two of them red-handed . Although Gerstl had threatened suicide , the couple decided to stay together because of their children. However, there is evidence that Mathilde appeared in the studio as a model before Gerstl's death.

Gerstl, on the other hand, hanged himself in front of a mirror, pierced by a knife. He had previously burned numerous personal notes and paintings. He was buried in an honorary grave in the Sieveringer Friedhof (Department 1, Group 2, Number 11).

plant

Gerstl was a pioneer of Austrian expressionism . The school exhibition of the Vienna Academy from July 7-14, 1907 was the only documented exhibition of his works during his lifetime. He stood in radical opposition to the contemporary art business and rejected it, especially the art of Art Nouveau and Gustav Klimt he did not accept. As a young artist, he belonged to the so-called Schönberg Circle for many years, and his closeness to the Viennese avant-garde was evident.

Due to his early suicide, his work was not discovered until the early 1930s and its importance was only recognized and appreciated after 1945. Nevertheless, he has remained an unknown representative of the great Austrian Expressionists to this day. To date, 60 paintings and 8 drawings by the artist have become known, most of them can be seen in the Leopold Museum and the Austrian Gallery Belvedere in Vienna.

Alois Gerstl found canvases and sketches in his dead brother's studio, which he had a forwarding company store for years. 34 paintings were finally saved from destruction by the gallery owner Otto Kallir . He bought and restored them, his exhibition Richard Gerstl - a painter's fate caused a sensation in 1931. Munich, Berlin and Aachen were the next stops of the traveling exhibition. He was a key figure for the Austrian scene, and for post-war painters and actionists, he was inspired by Gerstl. It was not until the 1980s - primarily through exhibitions on Vienna at the turn of the century - that Gerstl was included in the canon of art history.

The Kamm Collection Foundation, located in the Kunsthaus Zug , has 10 paintings on 8 canvases by the artist. They range from landscapes to group portraits to portraits and self-portraits.

Works (selection)

  • Self-portrait as a half-act (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.637), 1902/04, oil on canvas, 159 × 109 cm
  • Fragment of a full-length laughing self-portrait (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug , inv.no. KG 78b), 1904/1905, oil on canvas, 170.5 × 74.3 cm
  • The sisters Karoline and Pauline Fey (Vienna, Belvedere , inv.no.4430), 1905, oil on canvas, 175 × 150 cm
  • Portrait of the composer Arnold Schönberg ( Wien Museum ), around 1905-06, oil on canvas
  • Woman with Child (Mathilde Schönberg with daughter Gertrud) (Vienna, Belvedere , inv.no.5852), 1906, oil on canvas, 160.5 × 108 cm
  • Self-portrait with a palette (Wien Museum), 1907, oil on canvas, 186.5 × 58.5 cm
  • Traunsee with "Sleeping Greek" (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv. No. 646), 1907, oil on canvas, 37.7 × 39.3 cm
  • Portrait of his father Emil Gerstl (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.638), 1906, oil on canvas, 211.1 × 150.3 cm
  • Route of the rack railway to the Kahlenberg (Vienna, Belvedere , inv. No. 5851), 1907, oil on canvas, 56 × 69.5 cm
  • Portrait of Mathilde Schönberg (Vienna, Belvedere , Inv. No. 4757), before summer 1907, oil on canvas, 95 × 75 cm
  • Professor Ernst Diez (Vienna, Belvedere , inv.no. 4036), before summer 1907, oil on canvas, 184 × 74 cm
  • Fruit tree with wooden supports (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv.no. KG 79), summer 1907, oil on canvas laid down on cardboard, 35.5 × 20.5 cm
  • Flower meadow with trees (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv. No. KG 80), summer 1907, inv. No. KG 81, 36 × 38 cm
  • Portrait of Alexander von Zemlinsky (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv.no. KG 78a), summer 1907, oil on canvas, 170.5 × 74.3 cm
  • Tree on Lake Traunsee (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv.no. KG 81), early autumn 1907, oil on canvas on cardboard, 38 × 51 cm
  • Portrait of Mathilde Schönberg in the studio (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, Inv.No. KG 77), autumn 1907, oil and mixed media (possibly glue paint) on canvas, 171 × 60 cm
  • Small self-portrait (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv.no. KG 83a), winter 1907/1908, oil on canvas, 47 × 37 cm
  • Head of a woman (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv.no. KG 83b), 1908, oil on canvas, 47 × 37 cm
  • Portrait of the mother Marie Gerstl (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug, inv.no. KG 82), 1908, oil on canvas, 49 × 35 cm
  • Group picture with Schönberg (Zug, Kunsthaus Zug , inv. No. KG 76), end of July 1908, oil on canvas, 169 × 110 cm
  • Tree with houses in the background (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.641), 1907, oil on canvas, 35 × 19.4 cm
  • Seated female nude (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.648), 1907/08, glue paint on canvas, 166 × 116 cm
  • Am Donaukanal (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.649), around 1908, oil on canvas, 63.5 × 47.5 cm
  • Mathilde Schönberg in the Garden (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 642), 1908, oil on canvas, 171 × 61 cm
  • Couple in the Green (Vienna, Leopold Museum, Inv. No. 645), 1908, oil on canvas
  • Uferstrasse near Gmunden (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.643), 1908, oil on canvas, 32.3 × 33.2 cm
  • View in the Park (Vienna, Leopold Museum), 1908, oil on canvas, 35.3 × 39.7 cm
  • Self-portrait, laughing (Vienna, Belvedere , inv.no. 4035), 1908, oil on canvas, 40 × 30.5 cm
  • Self-portrait (Wien Museum, inv.no.115.288), 1908, ink and pen, 40 × 29.7 cm
  • Portrait of Henryka Cohn (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.650), 1908, oil on canvas, 147.9 × 111.9 cm
  • Self-portrait as a nude (Vienna, Leopold Museum, inv.no.651), 1908, oil on canvas, 139.3 × 100 cm
  • Works by Richard Gerstl in the Belvedere

  • The sisters Karoline and Pauline Fey , 1905

  • Woman with child (Mathilde Schönberg with daughter Gertrud) , 1906

  • Route of the rack railway to the Kahlenberg , 1907

  • Professor Ernst Diez , before 1907

  • Mathilde Schönberg , before the summer of 1907

  • Self-Portrait, Laughing , 1908

Exhibitions

Trivia

Gerstl had excessive self-esteem, was arrogant towards fellow artists (Klimt); He not only offended teachers, he also insisted on having his own studio when, at the invitation of a professor, he switched to the "Systematic Special School for Landscape Painting". It should be emphasized that he asked for compensation from the Ministry of Cultus and Education because none of his pictures were shown in a school exhibition. He saw himself "excluded from the competition for the special school award."

literature

Fiction

Web links

Commons : Richard Gerstl  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Catrin Lorch: Guys like us. Retrieved March 12, 2020 .
  2. ↑ see the novel by Lea Singer, Wahnsinns Liebe
personal data
SURNAME Gerstl, Richard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian portrait and landscape painter
DATE OF BIRTH September 14, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH November 4, 1908
Place of death Vienna