Beer poster 1901

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Full-length portrait of a laughing young lady with raised beer mug (in her right, her left hand behind back in waitress position). She wears a red dress with white blouse and a white apron and stands in a cornfield with poppies behind 2 beer barrels (one lying) and a scythe lying on the ground. In the background two factories with smoking chimneys.

JQAW# G_1901_070
Oil on canvas - 125 x 93 cm
Signature; ф Adams 1901 (J Q entwined)
Image source: Künstlerhausarchiv, box John Quincy Adams.
Private collection Austria.

This painting probably served as a model for an advertising poster. The period of creation (1901) and the subject (beer = malt) suggests a connection to Adams' new father-in-law Moritz Sobotka (marriage of J.Q. Adams to Steffie Sobotka on March 25, 1901). Moritz Sobotka was (with Jakob Hauser) the co-founder and owner of the Stadtlauer Malzfabrik in Vienna (founded in 1884, converted into a joint-stock company in 1938 in the course of Aryanization and still existing today under the name STAMAG), probably commissioned the work to support his son-in-law who was in his artistic infancy.

According to (plausible) oral tradition, Steffie Adams, née Sobotka, served as the model for this painting (see image comparison in the cross-references). The depiction of the factory plant in the left background of the painting is a faithful reproduction of the Stadlau malt factory around 1900 (see image comparison in the cross-references). The plant in the right background is a depiction of the factory in Moric (Bohemia).

Cross-references

Malzfabrik Stadlau 1899 painting by Giovanni Varrone

Image comparison Steffie Adams beer poster with her paintings and photos

Exhibited

Literature

APH, catalog raisonné JQA 1995, p. 43, cat.#12, fig.#6.

Provenance

Client and his company. Private collection Austria.