August Eisenmenger Explained

August Eisenmenger (11 February 1830 – 7 December 1907) was an Austrian painter of portraits and historical subjects.

Life

He was born in Vienna. At the age of fifteen, Eisenmenger was already a student at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and won first prize in drawing. In 1848, his financial circumstances forced him to leave the Academy. He didn't find a secure position until he became a student/employee at Carl Rahl's studio in 1856.^[1]

In 1863, he became a drawing teacher at the Protestant School in Vienna. He eventually obtained a professorship at the Academy in 1872. He also established a private school where he taught Rahl's style of monumental painting. Rudolf Ernst was one of his best known pupils there.^{[1] [2]}

He died in Vienna in 1907. In 1913, a street in Vienna's Döbling district was named after him. Later, that street was removed for an industrial site and a new street was dedicated to him in the Favoriten district in 1959.

One of Eisenmenger's sons, Victor Eisenmenger, was the personal physician to Archduke Franz Ferdinand.^[3]

Major works

• Apollo and the Nine Muses, ceiling panels in the Vienna Musikverein.
• The ceiling panels in the Grand Hotel.
• The Twelve Months, an oil panel at the Palais Gutmann^[4]
• Ancestral portraits and panels depicting episodes in the lives of Maximilian I and Leopold V; at Hernstein Castle.
• The frieze medallions at the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna^[5]
• Frieze medallions in the meeting room of the Chamber of Deputies in the Austrian Parliament Building.^[5]

Further reading

• Werner Kitlitschka: Die Malerei der Wiener Ringstraße. Verlag Steiner, Wiesbaden 1981, .
• Helga Tichy: August Eisenmenger 1830-1907. Ein Wiener Maler der Ringstraßenzeit. 2 Vols., unpublished thesis, Vienna 1997.

Notes and References

1. Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950. Band 1, Verlag der Österr. Akademie der Wissenschaften, Graz/Köln 1957,, S. 237.
2. Albrecht Weiland: Der Campo Santo Teutonico in Rom und seine Grabdenkmäler. Band I, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1988,, S. 255 f.
3. News: Baron Eisenmenger, court physician, dead; medical adviser to late Archduke Francis Ferdinand and Ex-Emperor Charles . The New York Times . 12 December 1932 . en.
4. http://www.planet-vienna.com/spots/Palais/gutmann/gutmann.htm Palais Gutmann
5. http://www.retrobibliothek.de/retrobib/seite.html?id=66860 Meyers Konversationslexikon 1888–1890