Otto von Thoren was a celebrated Austrian painter of landscapes and portraits who became an elected member of three leading academies.
Born in Vienna, a city abundant with masterpieces, von Thoren developed a skill for drawing from an early age. He was evidently from a family of considerable means as his first significant role was as a ‘cuirassier captain’ in the Hungarian military. Cuirassiers were mounted calvary equipped with a cuirass (armour), sword, and pistols. Théodore Géricault’s ‘A Charge of Cuirassiers’ (1822/1823) depicts the French eqivalent.
Von Thoren was indebted to his faithful steed and unquestionably developed a close bond with horses as a result of his service. These early experiences contributed to his success as a painter of animals, and he carried with him a nuanced appreciation of their character and spirit.
Following the Austrian Revolution in 1848, he left the military and moved to Venice, where he experienced its artistic treasures. Immersed in the old Venetian masters, he was imbued with a renewed determination to become a painter of considerable merit.
He undertook his formal training at the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts before heading for the buzzing ateliers of Paris, which would become his home for several years. During his time in the French capital, he frequently visited Szolnok and the dusty plains of the iconic Puszta in Hungary. Here, he produced several exhilarating early works depicting the lifestyle of its horsemen and cattle herders. In ‘Horse Drivers in Hungary’ from 1871, there’s a sense of wilderness, as windswept animals emerge from the shade, the sky teeming with rain, towards a distant patch of illumination. It’s semi-apocalyptic and poignantly conveys the connection that man has with beast. It’s held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent.
Otto von Thoren, Horse Drivers in Hungary (1871)
His brushwork, which at times is impressionistic, could deliver energy and solidity in equal measure. His studies were often electrifying and overrun with vigour, such as ‘Quadriga in an Evening Landscape’ and ‘Hungarian Wagon’. Indeed, as we cast a modern eye over these today, they’re practically contemporary.
Otto von Thoren, Quadriga in an Evening Landscape
Otto von Thoren, Hungarian Wagon (1850)
Yet equally, he captured the quiet solemnity of nature - man in harmony with his environment. Working horses pull farmers atop sturdy haycarts as cattle graze in distant pasture.
In an extraordinary validation of his abilities, he was elected a member of the academies at Vienna, Amsterdam and Saint Petersburg. Also becoming a Knight of the Legion of Honor and winning numerous medals. His portrait of Franz Joseph I of Austria, which was shown in Paris, was presented as a gift to Napoleon III.
In 1889, he died in Paris, having produced a masterful body of works, which encapsulate, especially, his appreciation for the spirit of horses. His son, Maurice de Thoren, became a painter and illustrator.
Today, works by Otto Von Thoren are held at numerous museums, including at the Musée d'Orsay, Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, and in Brooklyn, Baltimore, Ghent, Gratz, Kœnigsberg, Leipzig, Liége, Paisley, Reims, and Vienna.
Exhibited
Paris, Antwerp, Vienna, London and Ghent.
Public Collections
Musée d'Orsay, Musée du Luxembourg in Paris, Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, and museums at Brooklyn, Baltimore, Ghent, Gratz, Kœnigsberg, Leipzig, Liége, Reims, and Vienna.
Timeline
1828
Born in Vienna to Francis-Casimir de Thoren and Constance-Marie-Françoise Lochmann.
1846
Appointed an officer in the Austrian military.
1848
Participated in the Austrian Revolution.
Lived in Venice.
1857
Began his career as an artist.
Studied in Brussels and Paris.
Enrolled at the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts.
1863
Elected a member of the Amsterdam Academy of Fine Arts.
1865
Married Marie Sophie Stephanie Renodeyn in Gent, Belgium.
Awarded a medal at the Paris Salon for ‘Voleurs de chevaux, ses Voleurs de bœufs’.
C. 1866
Commissioned to produce a portrait of Franz Joseph I of Austria, which was shown in Paris and later presented as a gift to Napoleon III.
1867
Moved to Paris.
C. 1868
Elected a member of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.
1869
Awarded a gold medal at the International Art Exhibition in Munich.
1879
Elected a member of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts..
Returned to Paris and undertook numerous trips to Italy.
1882
Awarded the Golden State Medal at the International Art Exhibition in Austria.
1884
Appointed as a Knight of the Legion of Honor.
1889
Died in Paris.
Reviews
Le Temps (1863)
“Otto von Thoren, these are three Hungarian peasants in a cart, pulled by two horses that run well. One of these men drives the unusual-looking team, and the other two, standing.”
Le Petit Journal (1864)
“Mr. Otto von Thoren, an Austrian who studies at the excellent school of Brussels, sends us a large landscape populated with animals: Evening in the Meadows of Southern Hungary. This vast expanse of steppe, this beautiful, broad and majestic sky, these oxen with large horns that the invasion of the Barbarians has acclimatized in the countryside of Rome, all combine to produce the most noble and picturesque ensemble. Mr. von Thoren is very advanced in his art; I wish that his success this year would make him get into the habit of exhibiting every year in Paris.”
Le Petit Journal (1864)
“Mr. Otto von Thoren, an Austrian who studies at the excellent school of Brussels, sends us a large landscape populated with animals: Evening in the Meadows of Southern Hungary. This vast expanse of steppe, this beautiful, broad and majestic sky, these oxen with large horns that the invasion of the Barbarians has acclimatized in the countryside of Rome, all combine to produce the most noble and picturesque ensemble. Mr. von Thoren is very advanced in his art; I wish that his success this year would make him get into the habit of exhibiting every year in Paris.”
Gazette des Beaux-arts (1865)
“An expert master in painting animals is the Austrian artist M. Otto von Thoren. His Horse Thieves and Ox Thieves won him a long-deserved medal this year. It was seen at the International Exhibition in London, Mr. Otto von Thoren is quite simply the best painter of his country. He treats at the same time, and in a just harmony, the figure, the animal, the landscape. In one as in the other of his last paintings, Hungarian marauders, taking advantage of the evening shadows, come to steal horses here, oxen there: everything is linked and held together in these nocturnal scenes where the character of the races is moreover so well observed: Mr. von Thoren possesses above all the gift of unity.”
Le Journal de Paris: National, Politique et Littéraire (1870)
“Mr. Otto von Thoren, an officer in the Hungarian army, who has abandoned his sabretache and dolman for the brushes of a landscape painter, will be exhibiting two remarkable paintings that Archduke Albert, on his recent trip to Paris, came to see in the painter's own studio. These two paintings, which depict two curious scenes from the life of Hungarian peasants, are entitled, one: Hauling Horses, the other: The Approach of the Wolf.
It was in front of these paintings by Mr. Otto von Thoren that our first excursion into the studios of the artists working in preparation for the next Salon stopped. We will soon share with our readers any other news we may have gathered, when we have resumed this interesting journey.”
Hôtel Drouot, Le Bulletin de l'art Ancien et Moderne (1913)
“Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1828, Chevalier van Thoren, after a short military career, devoted himself to painting in 1854. He first practiced portraiture successfully, then specialized in genre painting, following a stay in Belgium in 1857. Returning to Vienna in 1863, he began to make a name for himself with animal subjects. He exhibited at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1865, and settled in this city in 1867. Having settled among us, he traveled the cursus honorum of renowned artists. Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1884, he was a member of the jury at the 1889 Universal Exhibition when he died suddenly. The Luxembourg Museum had hosted one of his paintings: Return to the Farm.
It is this artist's studio, remaining as it was on the day of his death, that Mr. H. Baudoin and Mr. G. Petit will be dispersing, in Room 6, at the Hôtel Drouot, at the time these lines are published. The catalog reached us too late for us to have been able to announce the sale in our last column.”
La Noblesse Artiste et Lettrée, Tableau Historique
“Otto von Thoren, who sent five paintings to the Antwerp Salon in 1861, was a young Viennese painter who had been living in Brussels for some time. He excelled in one genre: the painting of horses and wild animals. Most recently, in 1863, he painted the Duke and Duchess of Brabant riding in the Sonian Forest.”
Obituaries
L’Echo De Paris
“We have learned of the death of the animal painter Otto von Thoren, who died suddenly last night. Otto-Carle-Casimir von Thoren was born in Vienna; he had sent two paintings to the 1865 Salon, Horse Thieves and Ox Thieves, which earned him his first award. Settling in Paris, he then made a name for himself as an animal painter and won a second medal at the 1884 Salon with Labor and Refuge. He was awarded the Cross of the Legion of Honor the same year. He was a member of the International Jury of Fine Arts for Austria-Hungary. His funeral will take place on Thursday at noon at the Trinity Church; burial will take place in the Montmartre Cemetery."