Double Portrait, 1926

In this Double Portrait the Austrian painter Carry Hauser (1895–1985) depicts himself together with his wife. Gertrud Herzog-Hauser (1894–1953) had studied classical philology and worked as a schoolteacher at the girls’ grammar school in Rahlgasse, where she eventually became the director. The couple had been married since 1922. Hauser painted the double portrait in the style of New Objectivity and in the tradition of the social portrait. The artist in a white shirt and tie, wearing a white smock, turns towards his wife with fondness and affection while she gazes ahead of her, calm and dispassionate. In the utmost foreground, their hands are seen placed on top pf one another. The couple stands in front of a window whose vertical lines frame the static classical composition. The painting was shown in the 52nd Hagenbund exhibition in 1926.

AK, 2021