Josef Dobrowsky

_{Karlsbad 1889 - 1964 Tullnerbach}

Josef Dobrowsky was born in Karlsbad, Western Bohemia, in 1889. He studied painting at the Viennese School of Arts and Crafts and at the Academy of Fine Arts under Christian Griepenkerl and Rudolf Bacher. Beginning in 1919, Dobrowsky was first a member and later an honorary member of the Vienna Secession. He received numerous awards, including the Great Austrian Prize of the State in 1962. In 1947, the painter of portraits, genres and landscapes was appointed professor at the Viennese Academy.
Josef Dobrowsky is one of the most significant Austrian painters of the interwar period. In his early works, the influence of Gustav Klimt, Albin Egger-Lienz and Ferdinand Hodler is clearly visible. Beginning in 1920, he devoted himself intensely to the study of Old Masters of the Netherlands, especially Pieter Brueghel the Elder and Rembrandt. Dobrowsky himself was primarily interested in portrait and landscape painting. A modest, clayey palette working with light and shadow qualities is characteristic for his painterly works. Often, they convey a melancholic or expressive atmosphere. Josef Dobrowsky died in Tullnerbach, Lower Austria, in 1964.