Zoom
1880 – Vienna – 1947
- Title
- „Park Pavilion of Melk Abbey“
- Time
- around 1910
- signed
- lower right: "Blauensteiner", verso original artist’s label with handwritten inscription “Oktober” and “Melk 230”
- Technique
- oil tempera on canvas on cardboard
- Measurements
- 28¾×30 in
Leopold Blauensteiner, born in Vienna in 1880, had close ties with Melk since his childhood. He attended the abbey grammar school located there and helped with the restoration of Melk’s parish church while still a pupil. Blauensteiner received his artistic training from 1898 to 1903 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna under Christian Griepenkerl and through private lessons with Alfred Roller. He exhibited several times at the Secession and joined the “Klimt Group” in 1905. From 1911 to 1921 he was a member of the board of the Hagenbund and from 1920 a member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus.
In 1916, Blauensteiner acquired a house in Melk, where he lived and worked until 1930. From 1925, he was also active as curator of the Melk district. In 1927 he was honored with the Austrian State Prize, and in 1932 he was awarded the title of professor. From 1937 to 1941, Blauensteiner was president of the Vienna Künstlerhaus. During this time, he saved works by Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Heinrich Jungnickel and Carry Hauser from being destroyed as “degenerate art”.
The “Kunstschau Wien” (“Art Show Vienna”) was an exhibition initiated by the group around Gustav Klimt, which took place in two consecutive years, 1908 and 1909, in a pavilion specially designed by Josef Hoffmann on the grounds of the later built Konzerthaus. Leopold Blauensteiner was represented in both exhibitions with several works. The catalog of the 1908 show lists a painting by Blauensteiner with the title “Park Pavilion in Melk Abbey” (Room 13, No. 16). It is quite possible that this work is the painting depicted here.