Artwork Title: Frühling im Prater (Spring in the Prater)

Frühling im Prater (Spring in the Prater), 1882

Tina Blau

In 1882, Blau entered a painting entitled Springtime in the Prater in the prestigious Kunsterlhaus Exhibition that was put on by the Austrian Artist’s Society. This large canvas, depicting well-dressed Viennese visiting the much frequented nature park on the outskirts of their city, attracted considerable commentary for its especially light palette, relatively loose brushwork and luminous qualities. In fact, the selection panel, still adhering to the standards of academic art, only reluctantly accepted its inclusion in the show despite its basically realistic conception. The painting was judged by some observers to be the first impressionistic work by an Austrian. (http://www.richardrhoda.com/index_Tina_Blau.htm) By 1882 she had painted her most famous painting, the Spring at the Prater, which was aesthetically advanced and led to her succès de scandale in Vienna, and later Paris. ...Tina Blau was never selected as an artistic predecessor by the Secessionists, though were she a man, it is clear, from the sheer exuberance of her story, that she would have been. Her 1882 Spring at the Prater was nearly rejected by the jury of the Künstlerhaus because its light impressionistic effects were described as causing a "hole in the wall" in the otherwise dark installation. The painter Hans Makart (1840-1884) intervened and insisted that the picture be hung, and the hanging committee obliged, but placed it in a modest corner. The events were later recounted in articles about Tina Blau in local newspapers: In 1882 the first international art exhibition took place at the Künstlerhaus. There hung in a corner of the Austrian exhibition space a large, light Prater scene, all air and scattered light, which although it was placed high, in considerable distance from the onlooker, nevertheless weighed so heavily upon some hearts. It was a hole, a hole in the wall, through which one believed one could see into open nature! Antonin Proust, the French Minister of Fine Arts, was drawn to the work, declaring it the best in the show: One day the Minister of Fine Arts in France (Proust) came to the exhibition and was led through the house with great respect, with all the more respect as Paris was then the Mecca of painting. [He asked] "By whom is this then?" —Apologetically he was informed that the painter, Miss Tina Blau, was otherwise quite talented, one couldn't just ...' But that is the best picture in the whole room!' escaped from the lips of the guest. And with that began the fame of Tina Blau. Upon visiting her studio, Proust was surprised to learn that Blau had never been to Paris, and urged her to submit Spring at the Prater to the Salon. She did, and it received an honorable mention. (http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/index.php/autumn05/208-writing-erasing-silencing-tina-blau-and-the-woman-artists-biography)
Uploaded on Oct 19, 2016 by Suzan Hamer

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