Rudolf Swoboda (painter, 1859)
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Rudolf Swoboda the Younger (born October 4, 1859 in Vienna ; † January 26, 1914 there ) was an Austrian painter of Orientalism .
biography
Rudolf Swoboda was the son of the portrait painter Eduard Swoboda (1814–1902) and the nephew of the landscape and animal painter Rudolf Swoboda (1819–1859). His sister was the portrait painter Josefine Swoboda (1861–1929). He received his first lessons from 1875 at the arts and crafts school with Ermenegildo Donadini and Ferdinand Laufberger . From 1878 he studied at the academy under his uncle Leopold Carl Müller (1834-1892), with whom he traveled to Egypt in 1879 . From 1879 he also completed his service as a one-year volunteer and then stayed at the academy until 1884, interrupted by further trips to Egypt.
In 1885 he went to London, where he became court painter to the British Queen Victoria through the mediation of Heinrich von Angeli . In 1886 Queen Victoria commissioned Swoboda to paint Indian craftsmen who had been brought to Windsor as part of the preparations for the golden jubilee of the throne . Victoria was so pleased with the pictures that she financed Swoboda a trip to India to paint even more Indians there. Swoboda painted the normal Indian population there, mostly in groups on small paintings no more than eight inches high.
In India he spent some time with John Lockwood Kipling, where he also met his son Rudyard Kipling . The young Kipling was unimpressed by Swoboda, he wrote to a friend of two “crazy Austrians” who thought they were “all-powerful” artists with the aim of “doing justice to the whole of the enlightened East”.
After his return from India, he painted two portraits of Abdul Karim , the Munshi , Queen Victoria's favorite Indian servant, in 1888 and 1889 . Most of the pictures from the trip to India hang in Osborne House , Victoria's residence on the Isle of Wight . He was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery .
literature
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Swoboda, Rudolph . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 41st part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing House, Vienna 1880, p. 85 ( digitized version ).
- Herbert Zemen (Ed.): The Orient painter Rudolf Swoboda. 1859-1914. Life and work. Private printing. Zemen, Vienna 2004.
- Ch. Gruber: Swoboda, Rudolf (1859–1914). In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 14, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2012–, ISBN 978-3-7001-7312-0 , p. 88 f. (Direct links on p. 88 , p. 89 ).
Web links
- Obituary: "Rudolf Swoboda †". In: Neues Wiener Tagblatt . January 26, 1914, p. 8 , accessed on October 18, 2016 (digitized version: from ANNO - AustriaN Newspapers Online ).
Individual evidence
- ^ Rudolf Swoboda grave site , Vienna, Central Cemetery, Group 13, Group Extension A, Row 2, No. 6.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Swoboda, Rudolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Austrian painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 4, 1859 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Vienna |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 26, 1914 |
| Place of death | Vienna |