Albin Egger-Lienz

Franz Hauer, Vienna
Leopold Hauer, Vienna
Franz Rosenauer, Vienna
Sale: Wawra, Vienna, 1920, lot 34
Hans Arnstein, Trieste and São Paulo (purchased in 1934; Arnstein, the son of Carl Arnstein, founder of Arno & Cie., importers of coffee from Brazil, emmigrated to Brazil in 1938 where he set up the ARNO electrical appliances brand); thence by descent

Curt Weigelt, Albin Egger-Lienz, Berlin, 1914, pl. 28, illustrated
Heinrich Hammer, Albin Egger-Lienz, Innsbruck, Vienna & Munich, 1930, p. 274, catalogued; p. 103, no. 3, illustrated
Edition Tusch, Albin Egger-Lienz, Vienna, 1983, p. 20, listed, p. 92, no. 58, illustrated
Wilfried Kirschl, Albin Egger-Lienz, Das Gesamtwerk, Vienna & Munich, 1996, vol. I, pp. 172-76, discussed; p. 173, illustrated in its first state; p. 175, illustrated in its present state; vol. II, p. 538, no. M 304, catalogued & illustrated

The canvas has been re-lined with a very thin, translucent material (allowing the composition on the verso to be viewed), and is in good condition. There are a few scattered minor spots of retouching visible under ultraviolet light, notably to the chin and around the head of the female figure. Apart from some scattered very minor, pinhead-sized flecks of paint loss, this work is in very good condition, with rich tones, and held in a simple, wide, bronze-painted moulded plaster and wood frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Painted in 1909-10, Die Lebensalter (The Ages of Life) occupies a central position in Egger-Lienz's developing thoughts on a subject which pre-occupied him from 1909 until 1911, and which culminated in his monumental allegorical painting of the same title, completed in 1911, in the Österreichische Galerie (Belvedere), Vienna (fig. 1). Chronologically, the present work represents the second essay in the series. It differs significantly from both the première pensée of 1909 (Kirschl, no. M303) and from the oil that followed (Kirschl, no. M306), the latter becoming the direct compositional prototype for the Belvedere picture.

Egger-Lienz began the present work in 1909. His ever-developing thoughts on the composition are borne out by the changes he made to the painting. It existed for a time in a first, unsigned state (fig. 2), before the artist revisited it, reworking the left central figure and the orientation of the log carrier in the upper left corner, and signing the painting. (Weigelt, in his 1914 monograph on the artist, mistakes the two states for two separate paintings.)

Depicting six peasants resting from construction on a traditional log barn, Die Lebensalter is both a celebration and allegory of rural life through the generations in the Tyrol. It was painted at the height of Egger-Lienz's career, shortly after Der Totentanz von Anno Neun (1908; Vienna, Österreichische Galerie, Belvedere), and Haspinger Anno Neun (1908-09; Lienz, Museum Schloss Bruck). While the latter works were overtly polemical, inspired by the Tyrolean freedom battles of 1809 against the French troops of Napoleon, here the workers are depicted as the salt of the earth in times of peace, the proud and unquestioning expression and stance of the central couple evoking those in the French Realist Jean-François Millet's famous L'Angelus (fig. 3).   

The reverse of the canvas shows (under the thin muslin lining which holds the painting to the stretcher) a worked study of the nude figure in Egger-Lienz's 1908 oil, Sämann und Teufel (Sewer and Devil). After completing a second version in tempera (Kirschl, no. M245, fig. 4), Egger-Lienz cut the oil into pieces, turning the figure of the sewer into a painting in its own right (Kirschl, no. M244, fig. 5). Whether he ever completed the oil, which he began in rural Längenfeld, has never been known. If his intention was to paint the devil figure on his return to Vienna, where an appropriate athletic model could be found, then it follows that the figure on the back of the present work is either a study for, or a fragment of, the oil. The roughly cut canvas edges, and the height of the figure (similar to that of the sewer in the Leopold Museum picture) present a strong argument for the latter. 

Egger-Lienz was the illegitimate son of a peasant girl, Maria Trojer, and the Austrian church artist and photographer Georg Egger (1835–1907). Later he adopted the name of his father and home town. He studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich from 1884 to 1893, developing a naturalistic style influenced by Franz von Defregger. In 1899 he moved to Vienna, where his own style developed: its fresco-like monumentality was a contrast to sophisticated metropolitan culture at the turn of the century. His style was characterized by a concentration on the clearly outlined large form and by a linear rhythm in the picture surface. Bulky figures combine to form voluminous masses that appear against the background as silhouettes, while colours are reduced to mainly monochrome earth-coloured tones of brown.

The year the final version of Die Lebensalter was acquired for the Belvedere (1934) was also the year the present work was bought by the Trieste collector and entrepreneur Hans Arnstein (fig. 6), who took it with him to Brazil in 1938, and in whose family it remained until its rediscovery this year.

Fig. 1: Albin Egger-Lienz, Die Lebensalter, 1911 (dated 1912), 249 by 366 cm., Österreichische Galerie im Belvedere, Vienna

Fig. 2: Photograph of the present work in its first state

Fig. 3: Jean-François Millet, L'Angelus, 1857-59, Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Fig. 4: Albin Egger-Lienz, Sämann und Teufel, 1908-09, tempera on canvas, 200 by 220cm., location unknown

Fig. 5: Albin Egger-Lienz, Der Sämann (compositional fragment of Sämann und Teufel), 1908, oil on canvas, 126 by 111cm. © Leopold Museum, Vienna

Fig. 6: Photograph showing the present work in Hans Arnstein's home in Trieste, 1934-38