MaeDA GERTRUDE PRIMAVESI*
(Olmuetz 1903 - 2000)
Portrait Anton Hanak III
pencil/paper, 27.5 x 18 cm
verso inscribed M.Primavesi
provenance: estate of Josef Hoffmann, private collection Vienna
ESTIMATE #Euro 200 - 400
STARTING PRICE #Euro 100
Maeda Gertrude Primavesi was the daughter of the Olomouc banker and industrialist couple Otto and Eugenia "Maeda" Primavesi. Otto Primavesi commissioned Gustav Klimt in 1912 to paint portraits of his wife and daughter Maeda Gertrude. The Primavesis in Olomouc, cousin Robert Primavesi in Vienna, Josef Hoffmann, Anton Hanak and Gustav Klimt were close friends. Probably in connection with the International Art Exhibition in Rome in 1911, for which Hoffmann built the Austrian pavilion, Hoffmann was introduced to the Primavesis by Anton Hanak. For Robert Primavesi, Hoffmann built, among other things, the Skywa-Primavesi villa in Vienna-Hietzing, and for Otto Primavesi he furnished the town house in Olomouc, built a bank house there, and erected a country house in Winkelsdorf. Especially for Maeda Gertrude Hoffmann was a kind of uncle. Josef Hoffmann celebrated his birthday on November 19, 1920 in the circle of the Primavesi family in Olomouc. Maeda Gertrude Primavesi later emigrated to Canada, founded and ran a home for convalescent children in Montreal. With her, the last living model of Gustav Klimt died in 2000. Josef Hoffmann, a student of Carl Hasenauer and Otto Wagner and a founding member of the Vienna Secession, was one of the central figures of Viennese modernism as an architect and designer. Josef Hoffmann created residential buildings for Carl Moll, Koloman Moser, Eduard Ast, Otto Primavesi, Robert Primavesi and Sonja Knips, among others. In 1903, Hoffmann founded the Wiener Werkstaette (WW) with Koloman Moser and industrialist Fritz Waerndorfer, modeled on the British Arts and Crafts Movement and influenced by Viennese Art Nouveau. Otto, Eugeniea and Robert Primavesi participated in the WW in 1914 with a contribution of 400000 crowns. Hoffmann remained one of the most important designers of WW until its bankruptcy in 1932. The Wiener Werkstaette aimed to unite the entire spheres of human life in design, in the sense of a Gesamtkunstwerk. Among the WW staff were about a dozen women who were crucial to the stylistic shift from Art Nouveau to Art Deco in the 1920s, such as Vally Wieselthier, Gudrun Baudisch, Reni Schaschl, Hilda Jesser, and Susi Singer. Together with Stefan Rath, the head of the glass manufacturer Lobmeyr, Josef Hoffmann founded the oesterreichischer Werkbund (oeWB) in 1912. During this time, Hoffmann designed numerous glasses and chandeliers for Lobmeyr, some of which are still produced by Lobmeyr today. After the war, in 1948, Hoffmann founded the oesterreichische Werkstaetten as the successor to Wiener Werkstaette und Werkbund (oeWB). Hoffmann's tombstone was designed by Fritz Wotruba.
PLEASE NOTE:
The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked #), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium.
The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.