Wien 1883 - 1932 Kosmanos, ehem. Tschechoslowakei
Chinese on Deck
“Trieste Port Life” 5Woodcut on Japan paper, hand-colouring with watercolours
46 x 33.5 cm (image)
50 x 39.5 cm (sheet)
Provenienz:
Galerie Michael Pabst, Vienna, acquired in 1977
Private collection
Literatur:
cf. Exhibition catalogue "Fantastic! Rudolf Kalvach. Vienna and Trieste around 1900", ed. by Tobias G. Natter, Roberto Festi and Franz Smola, Leopold Museum, Vienna 2012, ill. p. 189, no. 4.6.1ff
Exhibition catalogue „Rudolf Kalvach. Genie und Wahnsinn“ Gerd Pichler, ed. by Galerie bei der Albertina Zetter, Vienna 2018, ill. p. 61, cat. no. 22
The Leopold Museum showed with „Fantastic! Rudolf Kalvach. Vienna and Trieste around 1900“ the first comprehensive presentation of the expressive oeuvre of Rudolf Kalvach. The retrospective traces the career of this highly talented artist, whose biography is closely linked with the era of „Vienna 1900“ and the early works of the Expressionists
Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele.1 Among the various woodcuts in Kalvach’s output, the scenes depicting port life in Trieste play a dominant role. There was no other motif that
Kalvach used so diversely as a theme in his print works. Kalvach reaped artistic recognition for his woodcuts especially in 1918, when Egon Schiele curated an exhibition of young Austrian art at the Vienna Secession. As can be learned from a press report at the time, nine woodcuts were sold on the opening day alone.2 Without doubt, these woodcuts with their unique character are among the highlights of Viennese print artworks around 1900.3
1 https://www.leopoldmuseum.org/en/exhibitions/44/fantastic-rudolf-kalvach
(11.7.2023)
2 Fremdenblatt of March 2nd, 1918, no. 58, p. 8
3 Gerd Pichler in: „Woodcuts“, in: Exhibition catalogue „Rudolf Kalvach. Genie und Wahnsinn „, publ. by Galerie bei der Albertina Zetter, Wien 2018, p. 50-52