EMILIE MEDIZ-PELIKAN
1861 Vöcklabruck – 1908 Dresden
THE ARTIST’S MOTHER
mixed media on paper, 430 x 303 mm
inscribed and signed at the bottom: Meine Mutter im 68. lebensalter …27. august 1905 E. Pelikan M.
date: 1905
exhibited:
Dresden, Galeriegebäude auf der Brühlschen Terrasse, Karl Mediz und Emilie Mediz-Pelikan, September 18th – Oktober 23rd 1943, no. 161 (not for sale).
provenance:
the artist’s estate;
Karl Mediz (1868-1945) Dresden;
by inheritance to their daughter, Gertrude Henzatko-Mediz, 1945;
Gertrude Honzatko-Mediz (1893 – 1975), Zurich;
Note: While Emilie Mediz-Pelikan and Karl Mediz’s estate was officially owned by Gertrude, its care was overseen by the German Democratic Republic;
probably Gerhart-Hauptmann Museum, Radebeul, Germany;
deposited by the GDR and never accessioned;
transferred to Austria probably at the family’s request;
probably family of Gertrude Honzatko-Mediz sold to Kurt Kalb, Vienna, c. 1984;
with Margarete Widder, Wien;
private collection, Vienna.
Emilie Mediz-Pelikan’s mother sat as a model for this incredibly lifelike drawing. The bright blue eyes bring the work to life. It is mainly her face that is elaborated in great detail in shades of dark chalk. The less finished parts of the composition also contribute to the spectator’s focus on the face.
Mediz-Pelikan’s mother played an important role in the artist’s life. It was she who recognized her young daughter’s talent for drawing and encouraged her to develop it further. Years later her mother took care of Emilie’s own daughter Gertrude for some time while the artist was making art or travelling. Mediz-Pelikan wanted the viewer to know that the model was her mother. Therefore, she wrote it on the drawing.
The artist was a student of Albert August Zimmermann, academy professor in Vienna. As women were not admitted to study at the Academy of Fine Arts at the time she had private lessons. She followed him when he was appointed professor in Salzburg and later in Munich. Mediz-Pelikan moved to the artist’s colony in Dachau, outside Munich in 1888. Here she met the younger Viennese painter, Karl Mediz, her future husband. Around this time, Emilie also spent some time in Paris studying the Impressionists. Her first gallery exhibition was held in 1890 by which time she was living in Knokke, Belgium, where she met Mediz again. The two were married in Vienna in 1891 and moved to Krems an der Donau where Gertrude was born. Success, however, was very hard to come by and therefore the couple decided to try their luck in Dresden moving there in 1894.
Mediz-Pelikan’s oeuvre consists mainly of portraits and landscapes. She first pursued a style inspired by Impressionism. After her move to Dresden her outlook changed and her interest shifted towards Symbolism. Shortly after, by the turn of the century, she had become one of the leading female Austrian artists as well as a member of the international avant-garde. For her, as for her compatriots Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, works on paper were an important means of expression. Drawings did not serve as preliminary studies but were considered works in their own right. In addition to drawings, she also made prints.
In 1898, Mediz-Pelikan was invited to show three paintings at the opening exhibition of the Vienna Secession. Clearly her peers considered her as one of the innovative powers that could shake up the conservative Viennese art scene. The artist exhibited three works at the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Dresden in 1901. Two years later she and her husband exhibited together at the Hagenbund, a group of Austrian artists rebelling, like the Vienna Secession, against the art establishment. She presented twenty-four paintings and sixteen drawings. Her canvas Flowering Chestnut Trees from 1900 was purchased from this exhibition by the state for the newly established Modern Gallery (todays Belvedere), which opened to the public three months later. Mediz-Pelikan eventually became an honorary member of the Hagenbund, which did not formally admit women until 1924. An exhibition of the artist’s graphic work took place at in Dresden in 1904. Her work was also exhibited at the Künstlerhaus in Berlin in 1905 and 1906. Mediz-Pelikan unexpectedly passed away aged forty-seven in 1908.