Skip to content
ONLINECOLLECTION

Portrait of Otto Mauer, c. 1947

Leopold Museum,
Vienna © Bildrecht,
Vienna 2022
Oil on canvas
93×81 cm

Artists

  • Josef Dobrowsky

    (Karlovy Vary 1889–1964 Tullnerbach)

Unfortunately not on display at the moment
The progressive priest Otto Mauer (1907–1973), banned from preaching under the Nazi regime, was widely seen as an important patron of avant-garde art mostly in the postwar period. He always sought to establish a relationship between the Catholic church and contemporary art because he saw in it the potential of living one’s faith in a way in keeping with the times. Here, in the Portrait of Otto Mauer of 1947, he looks, eyes half closed and brow furrowed, from the dark of the room toward some light source, his right arm thrown over and the left hand gripping the back of the chair he sits in. While the face is precisely detailed, the clothes, suggested rather than detailed, dissolve into the dark background with the canvas shining through in parts. The dynamic, coloration, and expression show parallels to Oskar Kokoschka’s (1886–1980) Self-Portrait, One Hand Touching the Face.

Object data

Artist/author
  • Josef Dobrowsky
Title
Portrait of Otto Mauer
Date
c. 1947
Art movement
Expressionism, Art after 1945
Category
Painting
Material​/technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
93×81 cm
Signature
Signed lower right: J. Dobrowsky
Credit line
Leopold Museum, Vienna, Inv. 42
Inventory access
Contributed to the Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung in 1994
Keywords

If you have further information on this object, please contact us.

Provenance

Provenance research
Leopold Museum i
Dr. Rudolf Leopold, Wien (o.D.);
Leopold Museum-Privatstiftung, Wien (seit 1994).

For provenance related information, please contact us.