Self Portrait by Max Kurzweil
The artist I am looking at today is the Austrian painter and printmaker, Maximilian Franz Viktor Zdenko Marie Kurzweil who was born on October 12th 1867 in Bzenec, a small town in the South Moravian Region, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and now part of the Czech Republic, He was the son of Kurt and Maria Kurzweil and he had a brother, Karl and two sisters, Marie and Berthe. In 1879, at the age of twelve, Max and his family moved to the outskirt of the Austrian city of Vienna. Vienna was a major cultural center at the time. It likely exposed the young Max Kurzweil to art and music. This early move to Vienna shaped his future artistic path.
The Cushion by Max Kurzweil (1903)
Max Kurzweil studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Christian Griepenkerl, a German painter and professor, who was best known for rejecting Adolf Hitler’s application to train at the Academy and Leopold Carl Müller, an Austrian genre painter noted for his Orientalist works. It was here that Max was encouraged to develop a solid foundation in classical painting techniques. Max Kurzweil’s artistic voyage of discovery was a continuous search for new forms of expression and his profound attention to the avant-garde movements of his time. One of his great interests was the Symbolist movement, which emphasized the emotional and mystical aspects of art, focusing on themes of love, fear, death with a highly stylized and decorative approach. In painting, Symbolism was looked upon as a restoration of some mystical trends in the Romantic tradition.
The Fisherman by Max Kurzweil (1910)
After leaving the Vienna Academy, Max travelled to Paris and attended the Académie Julian in Paris from 1892. It was whilst he was living in the French capital that he exhibited his first painting at the Paris Salon in 1894. Whilst living in France he visited the Breton harbour town of Concarneau and fell in love with the area, its vivid sunrises and sunsets, its people and the busy port with its sailing ships and fishing fleet. In 1894 he returned to Vienna and the Academy and studied the art of portraiture. He began to be influenced by French art especially Impressionism and plein-air painting which showed him the way to use lighter – much brighter colours than those he used before.
The artists wife Martha Kurzweil on the shore in Pont-Aven, France (c1900)
In 1895 Max married Maria-Josephine Marthe Guyot a woman from Brittany and they used to spend their summers in Brittany and their winters in Vienna. In 1896, at the age of twenty nine he became a member of the Künstlerhaus in Vienna.
Members of the Vienna Secession at the group’s 14th (“Beethoven”) Exhibition (1902). Left to right: Anton Stark, Gustav Klimt (in the chair), Koloman Moser (before Klimt with hat) Adolf Böhm, Maximilian Lenz (lying), Ernst Stöhr (with hat), Wilhelm List, Emil Orlik (seated), Maximilian Kurzweil (with cap), Leopold Stolba, Carl Moll (horizontal), Rudolf Bacher
A year later in 1897 he was one of the founders of the Vienna Secession, along with Josef Hoffman, Koloman Moser, Otto Wagner and Gustav Klimt. The Vienna Secession was formed as a counter-response to the conservatism of the artistic institutions in the Austrian capital The objectives laid down at the founding of the Movement encompassed the establishing contact and an exchange of ideas with artists from outside Austria, and thus condemning artistic nationalism, renewing the decorative arts; creating a “total art”, that unified painting, architecture, and the decorative arts; and, in particular, opposing the domination of the official Vienna Academy of the Arts, the Vienna Künstlerhaus, and official art salons, with its traditional orientation toward Historicism, which comprises artistic styles that draw their inspiration from recreating historic styles or imitating the work of historic artists and artisans.
The Vienna Secession Building, Vienna
The Vienna Secession Movement consisted of a number of artists who decided to break away from the association that ran the city’s own venue for contemporary art to form their own, progressive group and built a venue to display their work. The Secession’s building created the first dedicated, permanent exhibition space for contemporary art of all types in the West.
Cover of First Issue of Ver Sacrum
Max Kurzweil was also editor and illustrator of the influential Secessionist magazine Ver Sacrum (Sacred Spring). The magazine, founded by Gustav Klimt and Max Kurzweil was the official journal of the Vienna Secession. It was published from 1898 to 1903 and featured drawings and designs in the Secession style along with literary contributions from distinguished writers from across Europe. Max was also professor at the Frauenkunstschule, an academy in Vienna for female artists.
Woman in a Yellow Dress by Max Kuzweil (1899)
Kurzweil’s completed one of his best-known paintings entitled Woman in a Yellow Dress in 1899. It is a truly stunning painting of his beautiful wife Martha. Her arms are draped over the back of a chaise longue, which is upholstered in a green patterned fabric, as she gazes out at us in a languid and relaxed pose. There is a supreme look of contentment in her expression. The yellow dress with its many tones is in total harmony with the sofa and compliments her pale limbs.
Martha Kurzweil before an Easel by Max Kurzweil l(1902)
Kurzweil won the prestigious Villa Romana Prize in 1905. This award allowed him to spend time in Florence, Italy, furthering his artistic development. His time there influenced his later works. Max Kurzweil’s portraiture was outstanding and a good example of this is his portraits of two young girls Mira and Bettina Bauer. Max had been a close friend of Eugen and Lily Bauer and their two daughters and he had taught the mother of the Bauer sisters painting and was a frequent guest at the Bauer household. In 1907 they asked him to complete two separate portraits of the girls and he was invited to their summer residence located on the corner of Largo San Grisogono and the Palatucci Gardens, known at the time as Villa Bauer.
Mira Bauer by Max Kurzweil (1908)
In his half-length painting of Mira Bauer, which Kurzweil completed in 1908, we see a very young girl portrayed standing next to a dark wooden piece of furniture on which is a vase of colourful flowers ranging from white to orange and purple. Mira has long dark brown hair. She carefully stares towards Kurzweil who is portraying her. Her gaze appears serious, serene and yet at the same time imparts a lot of sweetness towards the observer.
Bettina Bauer by Max Kurzwill (1907)
Bettina Bauer, who at the time of the portrait was four years old, became a well-known painter and illustrator of numerous children’s books, many of which she also wrote. On November 27th 1930 she married the sculptor Georg Ehrlich. Georg Ehrlich frequently depicted children and young people in his sculptures, often as symbols of hope. This cast of ‘Two Sisters‘ was completed in 1944. The inscription suggests that it was originally cast as a private memorial to his wife Bettina’s sister, Mira Marie Bauer, later Mira von Gutman, who died in 1944. The figure on the right is Ehrlich’s wife Bettina and the figure on the left is Mira, his sister-in-law Mira.
Two Sisters. Sculpture by Georg Ehrlich
Georg Ehrlich was born in Vienna but because of the post-War economic depression in Austria he moved to Munich and then to Berlin. He returned to Vienna in 1924, and his interest turned almost exclusively to sculpture. On November 27th 1930 he married the artist Bettina Bauer, who like him, was Jewish. After the Nazi Anschluss in March 1938, it was too dangerous for them to be living in Austria. He decided to stay in London, where he was at the time and his wife joined him there in July 1938, bringing many of his works. Mira Bauer was already living in London and organised the paperwork needed to bring Georg and Bettina to join her in London. Mira died in 1944. In June 1940 Ehrlich was interned as a so-called ‘enemy alien’ in Hutchinson Camp on the Isle of Man. He became a British citizen in 1947 and was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1962.
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I by Gustav Klimt (1907)
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II by Gustav Klimt (1912)
Mira and Bettina’s aunt was Adele Bloch Bauer. She was a Viennese socialite, salon hostess, and patron of the arts from Austria-Hungary, who was married to sugar industrialist Ferdinand Bloch-Bauer. She is most well known for being the subject of two of artist Gustav Klimt’s paintings. She has been called “the Austrian Mona Lisa”.
Ein Lieber Besuch (A dear visit) by Max Kurtzweil (1894)
My last work by Max Kurzweil I am showing is my favourite. He completed Ein Lieber Besuch in 1894. We are looking through the open door which leads to a winter snowy barracks courtyard, and see a horse led by a soldier entering a sickroom. The patient is propped up in bed by another soldier. The sick person’s eyes are closed, but his hand is raised in a loving greeting. Max Kurzweil beautifully depicts this poignant and heart-rending scene in a narrative way. The condition of the patient seems serious and it could be that the ‘dear visit’ mentioned in the title is also a farewell forever. Kurzweil’s depiction of the soldier’s life aligns with a realistic conception of art.
A Walk in the Garden by Max Kurzweil (1896)
Kurzweil was highly thought of by his contemporaries for his contributions to the Vienna Secession. Along with Gustav Klimt, he remains to the most significant representatives of the Viennese Secessionist movement. Over the years his work continued to change and develop.
Despair by Max Kurzweil
Sadly, all was not well with him financially or with his personal life and as a consequence of these problems which worsened his inborn sense of melancholy, he committed suicide, at the age of 48, on May 9th 1916, together with his student and lover, Helene Heger.
Information for this blog came from Wikipedia and three excellent websites:
The Art Story – Vienna Secession
Catherine la Rose – The Poet of Painting
