This early 20th-century mixed media by K & K Hof Atelier Pietzner of Vienna depicts a respectable family within a neoclassical garden setting.

With the advent of photography, affluent homeowners sought to decorate their walls with portraits of their loved ones and by the end of the 19th century, it had become a booming industry. As such, each photography pioneer continually embraced new technologies to satisfy the whims of their eager patrons. Newspapers throughout this period are awash with advertisements by inventive studios - each proclaiming to offer improved fidelity via enhanced techniques.

Internationally-celebrated Austrian, Karl Pietzner (1853-1927), was a particularly creative photographer and known for his involvement with K & K Hof Atelier Pietzner. One of his offerings involved producing enlargements, which were then overpainted in watercolours, pastels or oils. Using this method, he produced a portrait of Emperor Franz Joseph I, which was subsequently exhibited in 1898.

Here, in this piece from 1900, Pietzner’s Atelier has adopted a hybrid, collage, technique and placed tinted photographic cutouts into a garden setting painted in watercolour and gouache. It’s possibly the family’s estate or simply a grandiose backdrop for their diverse range of stances. The overall effect is rather splendid with the crispness of the figures juxtaposed against a misty idyll.

Signed/dated lower left and monogrammed in the lower right. Held within a contemporary frame. Glazed.

Medium: Mixed media on paper
Overall size: 34” x 27” / 87cm x 68cm
Year of creation: 1900
Provenance: Private collection, Austria.
Condition: Assessed and approved by our conservator. Minor craquelure in varnished areas. Light age-related marks.  
Our reference: BRV1572