Broncia Koller-Pinell (25 February 1863 – 26 April 1934) was an Austrian

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

painter who specialized in portraits and

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

Life

She was born as Bronisława Pineles to a Jewish family in

Sanok Sanok (in full the Royal Free City of Sanok — pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Sanok, rue, Санок, ''Sanok'', ua, Cянік, ''Sianik'', la, Sanocum, yi, סאניק, ''Sonik'') is a town in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of south-eastern ...

in what is now Poland. Her father, , was a designer of military fortifications.Jewish Women's Archive:
Biography by Birgit Ben Eli In 1870, they moved to Vienna to start a manufacturing business (where they changed the family name to "Pinell") and she took private art lessons with

Alois Delug Alois Delug (25 May 1859 – 17 September 1930) was an Austrian painter and a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna. He may be remembered best for his supposed role in rejecting Adolf Hitler's application to join the Academy. Life Af ...

. In 1885, she had her first public exhibition. For the next five years, she studied in Munich at the "Damenakademie" of the Munich Artists' Association in the studios of Ludwig von Herterich. This was followed by exhibitions at the

Vienna Künstlerhaus The Künstlerhaus in Vienna’s 1st district has accommodated the Künstlerhaus Vereinigung since 1868. It is located in the Ringstrassenzone in between Akademiestraße, Bösendorferstraße and Musikvereinsplatz. The building was erected betw ...

, in Munich and in Leipzig. Koller-Pinell exhibited her work at The Woman's Building at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

in Chicago, Illinois. In 1896, against her family's wishes, she married the physicist and industrialist, Dr. , who was a Catholic. Their children were raised as Christians, but she never converted. At first, they lived in

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

and

Nuremberg Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...

, but returned to Vienna in 1902. Shortly after, she was accepted as a member of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (german: Wiener Secession; also known as ''the Union of Austrian Artists'', or ''Vereinigung Bildender Künstler Österreichs'') is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austri ...

. In 1904, she inherited a house in

Oberwaltersdorf Oberwaltersdorf is a town in the district of Baden in Lower Austria in Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a fe ...

. The family soon moved there, and she had it decorated by

Josef Hoffmann Josef Hoffmann (15 December 1870 – 7 May 1956) was an Austrian- Moravian architect and designer. He was among the founders of Vienna Secession and co-establisher of the Wiener Werkstätte. His most famous architectural work is the Stoclet P ...

and

Koloman Moser Koloman Moser (; 30 March 1868 – 18 October 1918) was an Austrian artist who exerted considerable influence on twentieth-century graphic art. He was one of the foremost artists of the Vienna Secession movement and a co-founder of Wiener Werks ...

, associates from the Secession. Shortly after, she set up a salonNiederösterreichisches Landesmuseum
Brief biography that was frequented by

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude self-portr ...

Anton Faistauer Anton Faistauer (14 February 1887, Sankt Martin bei Lofer – 13 February 1930, Vienna) was an Austrian Expressionist painter. Life He came from a family of farmers, grew up near Maishofen and originally wanted to be a priest. After a meeting ...

and

Albert Paris Gütersloh Albert Paris Gütersloh (born Albert Conrad Kiehtreiber; 5 February 1887 – 16 May 1973) was an Austrian painter and writer. Gütersloh worked as actor, director, and stage designer before he focused on painting in 1921. As a teacher of A ...

, among others. Her son, Rupert (1896–1976), became a conductor and was briefly married to

Anna Mahler Anna Justine Mahler (15 June 1904 – 3 June 1988) was an Austrian sculptor. Early life Born in Vienna, Anna Mahler was the second child of the composer Gustav Mahler and his wife Alma Schindler. They nicknamed her 'Gucki' on account of her ...

. Her daughter Silvia (1898–1963) was also a painter. Koller-Pinell died in Oberwaltersdorf on 26 April 1934. Her work was included in the 2019 exhibition ''City Of Women: Female artists in Vienna from 1900 to 1938'' at the

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere The Österreichische Galerie Belvedere is a museum housed in the Belvedere palace, in Vienna, Austria. The Belvedere palaces were the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736). The ensemble was built in the early eighteenth centu ...

Selected paintings

File:Blick über das Wiental, vor 1902.jpg, "Blick über das Wiental", vor 1902 File:Broncia Koller-Pinell Frau mit blauem Kopftuch.jpg, ''Woman with Blue Headscarf''
(date unknown) File:Koller-Pinell Silvia-Birdcage.jpg, ''Silvia Koller with Bird Cage'' (c.1905) File:Broncia Koller-Pinell Sitzende.jpg, ''Sitting'' (1907) File:Still-Life Red Elephant.jpg, ''Still-life with Red Elephant'' (c.1920) File:Portrait Eckstein Koller-Pinell.jpg, ''Portrait of

Friedrich Eckstein Frederick Eckstein (February 17, 1861 in Perchtoldsdorf, Lower Austria – November 10, 1939 in Vienna) was an Austrian polymath, theosophist and a friend and temporary co-worker of Sigmund Freud. Emil Molt states: 'He was the benefactor of Bruc ...

'' (1920s)

References

External links

ArtNet: More work by Koller-Pinell

Wien-Vienna Website:
"On the Career of Broncia Koller", a book review by Susanne Neuberger

@ The Blue Lantern * {{DEFAULTSORT:Koller-Pinell, Broncia 1863 births 1934 deaths 20th-century Austrian women artists People from Sanok Artists from Vienna Austrian women painters Austrian Jews Expressionist painters Jewish women painters Jewish painters

Life

Selected paintings

References

Further reading

External links