International studio (35.1908)

Ludwig Michalek

Theodor von Gomperz reproduced in the “Austrian
Art Revival.” Particularly refined in conception,
too, is the pastel portrait, here reproduced, of Dr.
Joachim; with what subtle feeling are the features
of the venerable! violinist rendered, with what
sincerity and intimacy has he not shown him as
we all knew him. The drawing is at once poetical
and truthful, and met with warm approval on the
part of the musician, who involuntarily “sat” for
this portrait during a quartette rehearsal, and who
added his signature and date in the right-hand
corner. In his portrait of the poet and dramatist,
Ferdinand von Saar, whose death last year put an
end to a beautiful life, what attracts the most is
the easiness and naturalness of the position, the
reflection of thought in the sitter’s mind, the
refined and benign expression, and the intellectuality
of lineaments; there is
a total absence of any
forced effort, the artist being
content to render the truth
as reflected before him.
The portrait sketch in oils
of Dr. Carl Wiirmb is
another fine example of his
methods. This was made
shortly before the death of
this celebrated engineer,
the builder of the Alpine
railways in Austria and of
the Salcano bridge near
Gorz (of which Herr
Michalek made several
etchings showing the bridge
in different stages of con-
struction, and also when
finished), and here, too,
while there is an avoidance
of anything and everything
pertaining to convention-
ality, the strong and finely
marked features are admi-
rably rendered.
None of these men have
sat for their portraits, but
the artist has sketched them
as they are or were in every-
day life. Even among his
earliest essays in original
portraiture, for instance his
portrait of Brahms, Ludwig
Michalek shows that same
love of truth and the same
power of seeking that which

lies beyond mere outward expression, so that one
unconsciously lingers over his works, reading in
them as in a book. So, too, with his portraits of
women ; here also the artist shows that he is no mere
lover of external appearances. The portrait repro-
duced on page 19 of Frau von Billroth, wife of
the eminent surgeon, proves this ; it is eminently
characteristic, a kind face, full of determination
however, a real German Hausfrau of a refined type.
St. Gilgen in the Salzkammergut is a favourite
resort in summer for such men and women as
Professor Michalek loves to delineate, and many
of his portraits were drawn there. That of his
mother, however, was done in Vienna in his
studio during one of her rare visits to the city,
for she too prefers to live apart from the world in
the little village of Haynek in the Carpathian

BY LUDWIG MICHALEK

PORTRAIT OF FERDINAND VON SAAR (PASTEL)
(In the Moderne Galerie, Vienna)

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