Leopold Kupelwieser (17 October 1796,

Markt Piesting Markt Piesting is a municipality in the district of Wiener Neustadt-Land in the Austrian state of Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austr ...

– 17 November 1862,

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

) was an Austrian painter, often associated with the

Nazarene movement The epithet Nazarene was adopted by a group of early 19th-century German Romantic painters who aimed to revive spirituality in art. The name Nazarene came from a term of derision used against them for their affectation of a biblical manner of c ...

Life

He was the son of Johann Baptist Georg Kilian Kupelwieser (1760–1813), co-owner of a factory that produced tableware.Eva Wald: ''Die Anfänge der Industrie des Wiener Beckens und ihre geographischen Grundlagen''. Vienna University dissertation, 1954
Permalink ''Österreichischer Bibliothekenverbund''
pg. 221. His talents were recognized at an early age by the sculptor

Franz Anton von Zauner Franz Anton von Zauner (5 July 1746/48, Kaunerberg – 3 March 1822, Vienna) was an Austrian sculptor who worked in the Neoclassical style. Life Although his parents were poor, they supported his desire to become an artist and a local sculpto ...

and by the time he was twelve, he was already attending the

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (german: link=no, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. History The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna was founded in 1692 as a private academy modelled on the Accademia di Sa ...

. During a stay in Rome in 1824, he came under the influence of Friedrich Overbeck and the Nazarene movement. After the death of , a Russian nobleman who had been his patron there, he returned to Vienna and earned his living primarily as an illustrator and portrait painter, although he is also known to have painted shop signs. His brother was the theatrical director

Joseph Kupelwieser Joseph Kupelwieser (14 January 1791 – 2 February 1866) was an Austrian playwright, librettist, dramaturge and theatre director. Working at Vienna theatres for decades, he wrote the libretto for Franz Schubert's opera ''Fierrabras''. Biograph ...

, who wrote the

libretto A libretto (Italian for "booklet") is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to the t ...

for Schubert's opera ''

Fierrabras ''Fierrabras'', 796, is a three-act German opera with spoken dialogue written by the composer Franz Schubert in 1823, to a libretto by Joseph Kupelwieser, the general manager of the Theater am Kärntnertor (Vienna's Court Opera Theatre). Along ...

''. With his brother, Joseph, he was a member of the "Schubertianer" (friends of

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

), a group that often got together for summers at the Schloss Atzenbrugg, west of Vienna. In 1826, Leopold married Maria Johanna Evangelista Augustina Stephania Theodora Lutz, an occasion which was marked by Schubert's composition, the "Kupelwieser Waltz" (never written down, but passed along by the family and later transcribed by

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

). In 1837, he became Professor of

history painting History painting is a genre in painting defined by its subject matter rather than any artistic style or specific period. History paintings depict a moment in a narrative story, most often (but not exclusively) Greek and Roman mythology and Bible ...

at the Academy and, in 1850, was awarded the Knight's Cross of the

Order of Franz Joseph The Imperial Austrian Order of Franz Joseph (german: Kaiserlich-Österreichischer Franz-Joseph-Orden) was founded by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria on 2 December 1849, on the first anniversary of his accession to the imperial throne. Classes ...

. Virtually all of his later work involved religious altarpieces and

fresco Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

es. At the age of sixty he fell ill, apparently due to the rigors of painting on wet

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

, and never recovered his health.

Legacy

In 1894, a street was named in his honor and a

commemorative stamp A commemorative stamp is a postage stamp, often issued on a significant date such as an anniversary, to honor or commemorate a place, event, person, or object. The ''subject'' of the commemorative stamp is usually spelled out in print, unlike def ...

was issued in 1996. He is a character in ''

Das Dreimäderlhaus ''Das Dreimäderlhaus'' (''House of the Three Girls''), adapted into English-language versions as ''Blossom Time'' and ''Lilac Time'', is a Viennese pastiche operetta with music by Franz Schubert, rearranged by Heinrich Berté (1857–1924), ...

'' (House of the Three Girls, 1916), a pastiche

operetta Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...

, derived from the music of Schubert by

Heinrich Berté Heinrich Berté (), born Heinrich Bettelheim (8 May 1858 – 23 August 1924) was an Austria-Hungarian composer of operas and operettas. Life Heinrich Berté was born in Galgócz, Hungary (now Hlohovec, Slovakia) in a Jewish family. At the b ...

, based on the novel ''Schwammerl'' (Mushroom, one of Schubert's nicknames) by Rudolf Hans Bartsch. Kupelwieser is honoured in street names in his birthplace (Kupelwieserstraße in Markt Piesting), Kupelwiesergasse in

Hietzing Hietzing () is the 13th municipal District of Vienna (german: 13. Bezirk, Hietzing). It is located west of the central districts, west of Meidling. Hietzing is a heavily populated urban area with many residential buildings, but also contains lar ...

, Vienna and in the Austrian towns of

Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...

St. Pölten ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy ...

and

Atzenbrugg Atzenbrugg is a municipality in the district of Tulln in the Austrian state of Lower Austria. The composer Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Ro ...

Life

Legacy

References

Further reading