Elsa von Pollack Parnegg ca. 1924
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JQAW# P_1924_030
Oil on canvas dimensions unknown
Signature: unknown, but likely John Quincy Ɑdams
Work lost
No illustration available
Elsa (Else/Elsie) von Pollack Parnegg (Baronin Elsa Pollack Parnegg), née Hirsch, 10.9.1884 Wien to 17.3.1938 Prague (Shoa).
Born in Vienna into a Jewish family, Elsa married the industrialist Baron Felix Pollack Parnegg in 1907 (see the text on the company Hermann Pollack's Söhne and the Pollack Parnegg family in the entry on the portrait of Baroness Ella Parnegg in the cross-references). The couple remained childless. Felix Pollack von Parnegg died by suicide in 1932. (The reasons for this remained a mystery, as did the suicide of his brother Friedrich Edwin in 1930). The widow remained in Austria until the invasion of German troops and the so-called Anschluss (the annexation and extinction of Austria by Nazi Germany), but together with her sister Fanny Jaray (1881-1949) fled from the Nazis to Prague on March 15, 1938, where, likely out of desperation due to her racial persecution, she died on 17.3.1938 by suicide jumping from the 5th floor of a house (Neu.Wr.Tagblatt 18.3.1938 S.30).
The available sources on her person emphasize above all her interest in and promotion of art.
She was befriended to the painter, graphic artist and photographer Ferdinand Schmutzer (1870-1928, who in turn was well acquainted with Adams), who captured her in numerous portrait photographs. She also supported financially the foundation of the Austrian Folklore Museum and sponsored the archaeological site Kathreinkogel in Austria’s Carinthia province, where she organized and financed the restoration of the church frescoes and the erection of a statue of St. Christopher and where a plaque commemorates her.
The Adams portrait of Elsa Pollack Parnegg is only documented by a single source (Boehm 1925, p.25, see literature) and its existence is uncertain, since it is possible that the source confused the portrait of Elsa Pollack Parnegg with the portrait of her sister-in-law Ella Parnegg, painted in 1924. In view of the fact that Adams next to Ella portrayed also other members of the Pollack Parnegg family (Hilda, née Auersperg, married Pollack Parnegg in her first marriage, and Gisela Groedel, née Pollack Parnegg, see cross-references), a portrait of Elsa appears quite possible. The portrait is lost and due to the racial persecution of the childless widow and her death in exile is likely to be no longer in existence.
Cross-references
Gisela Groedel 1908 (sister-in-law)
Hilda Auersperg 1924 (ex-sister-in-law)
Ella Pollack Parnegg 1924 (sister-in-law)
Exhibited
1924 Künstlerhaus Vienna (EL 72 1923/24 #2306 as "Baronin Parnegg", which could however also denote the portrait of her sister-in-law Ella von Parnegg painted at the same time).
Literature
Hans Boehm, 1925, John Quincy Adams, der Maler der guten Gesellschaft, Die Buehne 15, S. 25.
Provenance
Unknown.
Work lost.