Erica Tietze-Conrat (née Erika Conrat, also known as Erica Tietze; born June 20, 1883 – died December 12, 1958) was an Austrian-born American art historian, one of the first women to study art history, a strong supporter of contemporary art in Vienna and an art historian specializing in Renaissance art and the Venetian school drawings.

Life

Erica Conrat was born June 20, 1883 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

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 federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. She came from a prominent

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Vienna, which had converted to

Protestantism Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. She was the youngest of three sisters, and the oldest,

Ilse Twardowski-Conrat Ilse von Twardowski or Ilse Twardowski-Conrat (1880–1942) was an Austrian sculptor. She created many noted sculptures. She took her own life in 1942 as a result of the Holocaust. Life Twardowski was born in Vienna in 1880. Her father was a merc ...

was a sculptor. The father Hugo Conrat (also known as Hugo Cohn) was an avid music lover and friends of

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

. Erica was highly musical, played the piano and was among others friends with

Alexander von Zemlinsky Alexander Zemlinsky or Alexander von Zemlinsky (14 October 1871 – 15 March 1942) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and teacher. Biography Early life Zemlinsky was born in Vienna to a highly diverse family. Zemlinsky's grandfather, Anton S ...

and

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

, through which they met Karl Kraus. They also shared a long-standing friendship with

Alma Mahler Alma Maria Mahler Gropius Werfel (born Alma Margaretha Maria Schindler; 31 August 1879 – 11 December 1964) was an Austrian composer, author, editor, and socialite. At 15, she was mentored by Max Burckhard. Musically active from her early year ...

. Erica Conrat studied art history at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

from 1902 until 1905 under

Franz Wickhoff Franz Wickhoff (7 May 1853 – 6 April 1909) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. Early life Franz Wickhoff was born on 7 May 1853 in Steyr. He studied at the University of Vienna und ...

and

Alois Riegl Alois Riegl (14 January 1858, Linz – 17 June 1905, Vienna) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. He was one of the major figures in the establishment of art history as a self-sufficient ac ...

and in 1905 received her doctorate with dissertation contributions to the history of Georg Raphael Donner. She was the first woman who completed the study of art history at the University of Vienna with a doctorate. In the same year Erica married fellow student

Hans Tietze Hans Tietze (May 1, 1880 in Prague – April 4, 1954 in New York City) was an Austrian art historian and member of the Vienna School of Art History. Life and work The son of a Jewish lawyer, Tietze grew up in Prague in a German speaking environ ...

, he was also studying art history during the same time. This was the first " Vienna School" art history program. European universities discriminated even more blatantly against women scholars at the time than they do now, and apparently Erica's husband did not foster her independent research but rather expected her to help with his and cook for him as well. Between 1908 and 1910 the Tietzes had four children. Erica and Hans Tietze were friends with many contemporary artists including

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense Expressionism, expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the ...

who was commissioned to paint them in 1909, the portrait is now at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The sculptor Georg Ehrlich created two bronze busts of Hans and Erica Tietze which are now in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna, as well as numerous portrait drawings of Erica Tietze. In 1938 the couple emigrated to the U.S. for political reasons during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Erica Tietze worked as a researcher, academic lecturer at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

and published art historical publications on Renaissance artists as well as contemporary Vienna artists until her death. In 1970, a room at the Austrian Museum of Baroque Art was named in Erica Tietze-Conrat’s honor for her contributions to the study of Austrian artists. In the fall of 2004, the ''International Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat Society'' founded in Vienna, which has taken the care of the complete works of art historian-married couple to the task. The son of the couple is the

Turcologist Turkology (or Turcology or Turkic studies) is a complex of humanities sciences studying languages, history, literature, folklore, culture, and ethnology of people speaking Turkic languages and Turkic peoples in chronological and comparative conte ...

Andreas Tietze Andreas Tietze was an Austrian scholar of Turkish lexicography and language. Biography Tietze was born on April 26, 1914, in the early months of World War I to art historians Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat. He studied at the University ...

Works

* "The Art of Woman. An epilogue to the exhibition at the Vienna Secession", in: ''Journal of Fine Art'' , NF 22, 1911, pp. 146–148. * ''Austrian Baroque Sculpture'', Vienna 1920. * ''Oskar Laske'', Vienna 1921. * ''Andrea Mantegna'', Leipzig 1923. * ''The French engraving of the Renaissance'', Munich 1925. * ''The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries'', New York 1944 (with Hans Tietze) * ''Mantegna. Paintings, Drawings, Engravings'', London 1955. * ''Georg Ehrlich'', London 1956. * ''Dwarfs and Jesters in Art'', London 1957.

Literature

* ''Essays in Honor of Hans Tietze'', Paris, 1958 (with a complete bibliography of the writings of Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat). * Almut Krapf-Weiler: "Erica Tietze Conrat (1883–1958) and Alma Mahler-Schindler (1879–1964), an encounter", in: ''Without smoke goes nothing! A Festschrift for the 50th birthday of Dr. Peter Rauch'', Vienna, Cologne and Weimar 1992, p 77–84. * Almut Krapf-Weiler: "'Lion and Owl'. Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat – a biographical sketch", in: ''Belvedere'', 1, 1999, pp. 64-83. * Almut Krapf-Weiler (ed.): ''Erica Tietze-Conrat. The woman in the science of art. Texts 1906–1958'' , Vienna, 2007. * Ulrike Wendland: ''Biographical Handbook of German art historians in exile. Life and work of the persecuted and exiled under Nazism scientists.'' Saur, Munich, 1999, vol. 2, p 679-703

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tietze-Conrat, Erica Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United States after the Anschluss Women art historians Austrian women academics 1883 births 1958 deaths Austrian art historians American art historians American women historians

Life

Works

Literature

See also

References