Anton PESCHKA
(Vienna 1885 - Vienna 1940)
Autumn Vine Tendril
Watercolour over a pencil underdrawing.
Signed A. Peschka in pencil at the lower left.
283 x 240 mm. (11 1/8 x 9 1/2 in.)
Signed A. Peschka in pencil at the lower left.
283 x 240 mm. (11 1/8 x 9 1/2 in.)
The influence of Egon Schiele, the artist’s brother-in-law, is evident in this fine watercolour, as it is in much of Anton Peschka’s work.
Anton Emanuel Peschka was enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna between 1906 to 1910, where he studied with Christian Griepenkerl. Among his fellow students there was Egon Schiele, with whom he developed a close friendship. He had earlier exhibited with the Neukunstgruppe, a group of young artists, led by Schiele, who renounced the Academy and were searching for new forms of artistic expression; the group mounted exhibitions in Vienna, Prague and Budapest between 1909 and 1912. In 1914 Peschka married Schiele’s sister Gertrude, and he was remained a close friend of the artist throughout his short life. Peschka exhibited at the Vienna Künstlerhaus between 1910 and 1919, and was an active member of the Austrian artist’s group the Hagenbund from 1922 to 1935. Peschka produced mainly paintings of nudes and landscapes, and also worked as a commercial artist, designing Austrian postage stamps and banknotes in the 1920s. Works by Peschka are today in the collections of the Albertina, the Museum der Stadt Wien, and several other museums in Vienna.