Teresa Feoderovna Ries (30 January 1874,

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

– 16 July 1956,

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

) was a Russian-born Austrian sculptor and painter. The year of her birth has also been given as 1866 and 1877.

Life and work

Teresa Ries was born in Russia to a Jewish family. She attended the

Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture The Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (russian: Московское училище живописи, ваяния и зодчества, МУЖВЗ) also known by the acronym MUZHZV, was one of the largest educational insti ...

. She was expelled for showing disrespect toward a professor in one of her classes. She moved to Vienna at the age of 21, where her first exhibition 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 ...

included ''Witch'', a sculpture of a nude woman clipping her toenails. This piece caught the attention of Kaiser

Franz Joseph I Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the other states of the Habsburg monarchy from 2 December 1848 until his ...

, and she soon became highly celebrated throughout Vienna. The exhibition was also attended by Gustav Klimt, an active 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 Austr ...

movement, who asked her to exhibit with them. She sought out

Edmund Hellmer Edmund Ritter von Hellmer (12 November 1850, Vienna – 9 March 1935, Vienna), born Edmund Hellmer and ennobled in 1912, was an Austrian sculptor who worked in the styles of Historicism and Art Nouveau. Life Hellmer studied architecture at ...

as a mentor; at first he refused, saying that "it was pointless to teach women since they married anyway". Hellmer eventually relented and helped her to exhibit her work and to gain commissions. In 1900 Ries exhibited at the Paris

World's Fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

and the 1911 World's Fair in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

on the invitation of both Russia and Austria.

Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein (Alois Gonzaga Maria Adolf; 17 June 1869, in Hollenegg – 16 March 1955, in Vaduz) was the son of Prince Alfred of Liechtenstein (1842–1907) and Princess Henriette of Liechtenstein (1843–1931), daughter of A ...

offered her the use of a suite of rooms beside his own picture gallery as a studio. Working in stone, marble, plaster, and bronze, Ries produced both private and public works during her career. Some of her well-known nude sculptures are ''Sleepwaker'' (pre-1894), ''Lucifer'' (c. 1897), and ''Death'' (1898). She produced sculptures and busts for public spaces; her ''Bust of Jaromir Mundy'' (1897) is mounted on the outside of the Vienna Fireman's Association building. She is perhaps best known for photographing and creating a bust of Mark Twain during the time he resided in Vienna. According to art critic Karl Kraus, "her exhibitions received too much publicity". Ries published her memoir, ''Die Sprache des Steines'' (The Language of Stone) in 1928. In 1938 she was evicted from her gallery and studio space due to the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

policy of

Aryanization Aryanization (german: Arisierung) was the Nazi term for the seizure of property from Jews and its transfer to non-Jews, and the forced expulsion of Jews from economic life in Nazi Germany, Axis-aligned states, and their occupied territories. I ...

. She continued to work in Vienna until 1942 and then immigrated to

, Switzerland.

Personal life

Ries married, lost a child, and divorced while still a teenager in Moscow.

Legacy

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), 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 ea ...

References

Sources

* * Anka Leśniak
''Teresa Feodorowna Ries and The Witch''
Art and Documentation, 21, 2019, pp. 143–158 {{DEFAULTSORT:Ries, Teresa Feoderovna 1874 births 1956 deaths Artists from Moscow People from Moscow Governorate Russian Jews Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Austria-Hungary Austrian people of Russian-Jewish descent Russian women painters 20th-century Austrian painters Members of the Vienna Secession Jewish women painters Jewish painters Jewish women sculptors Austrian women sculptors 20th-century Austrian women artists Artists from Vienna Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture alumni