Maximilian Kurzweil

_{Bisenz 1867 - 1916 Wien}

Max Kurzweil was born in Bisenz in 1867 into a family of Bohemian confectioners, who moved to Vienna for commercial reasons. It was at his own request, that after completing his secondary schooling at the Schottengymnasium in Vienna in 1886 he was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts under Christian Griepenkerl. In 1890 Max Kurzweil volunteered for military training and participated in military maneuvers over the following years , which allowed him to get to know Eastern Galicia. He visited Paris and Brittany for the first time in 1892. In 1895 he married Martha Guyot, the daughter of the vice mayor of the picturesque Breton village of Concarneau. From 1896 the artist was a member of the Cooperative of Fine Artists in Vienna and joined the Secession the following year, where he retained his membership until 1905 and also regularly contributed figural images, portraits, landscapes and woodcuts. He was also a teacher at the Viennese Women’s Academy from 1911 to 1915.