Gabriele Fekete ca.1910

Standing 3/4-length portrait, side view from the left. The sitter is standing at a table, arranging yellow chrysanthemums in a blue vase. A flower lies on the table in front of the vase. Her head is tilted downwards, her gaze turned towards the viewer. She is wearing a white silk dress with a brown and gold fabric flower in front of her chest, a hairband in the same fabric and a short pearl necklace around her neck. Background: a sketched living room interior with a partially visible gold-framed picture on the wall.

JQAW# P_1910_142
Oil on canvas 122 x 100 cm
(original reduced in size on top and bottom)
Signature: John Quincy Ɑdams (on the canvas folded at back of painting)
Unknown private collection USA.
Picture: courtesy Auktionshaus Schuler AG Zürich, September 2024

Gabriele (Gabriella Ella) Fekete, neé Schindler-Barnay 28.10.1879 Vienna to 14.10.1950 Zurich (CH), co-established Gabriele and Mor Fekete Foundation (supporting inter alia the jewish home for aged people in Zurich).
Gabriele was born in Vienna in 1879, the daughter of Dr. Carl Schindler-Barnay (1840-1901) and Flora S-B, née Bettelheim (1857-1929). (The father's double name came about for a tragic reason: his father Josef Schindler died before/shortly after his birth. His mother remarried Ignaz Barnay (originally Braun). Gabriele's father took the double name Schindler-Barnay). Gabriele had three siblings (one brother and two sisters). Her father was a doctor who, at the time of her birth, was a spa doctor in Marienbad (now the Czech Republic) with a private practice in Vienna. He later became head physician at the hospital of the Crown Prince Rudolf Foundation (now the Rudolfinerhaus private hospital). Gabriele's childhood and upbringing were shaped by an upper middle-class Jewish family background.

Gabriele married Mor (Moritz) Fekete in Bratislava in 1897. The couple lived in Vienna, first in Ungargasse in the 3rd district, later in the prestigious Palais Dreher in Operngasse 8 opposite the Court Opera (the building was destroyed by bombs in the Second World War and rebuilt in a modern style). In 1900, the (only) daughter Helene Marie Ilona F. (after her marriage in 1921 Ilona Tandler, 1900 Vienna - 1981 Vienna) was born. The daughter's 1921 marriage in the Jewish city temple in Vienna testifies to the family's continued commitment to the Jewish faith. The economic success of Gabrieles husband enabled them to lead an upper-class lifestyle, which is best characterized by the Adams portrait, as the artist was already the leading portraitist in Viennese society around 1910 and demanded correspondingly. The portrait of Gabriele is not dated, but was likely created at the same or around the time of the portrait of her husband Mor Fekete, which can be dated to 1910 (exhibition at the turn of the year 1910/1911, publication 1911). Due to the identical dimensions, a similar price (around 7000 crowns insurance value at the time of the exhibition of the portrait of Mor Fekete) can be assumed for the Gabriele portrait (in today's monetary value a hefty 50,000 euros).

Before the Anschluss (i.e. the annexation of Austria) in 1938, the almost 60-year-old Gabriele had every reason to look forward to a peaceful, well-provided-for old age. The rapid onset of racial persecution by the Nazis must have been all the more of a shock. More precise information about her fate after 1938 is not available. It is known that Mor and Gabriele Fekete went into exile in Argentina in 1941 and lived in Buenos Aires. As emigration from Austria was practically impossible after the onset of WWII in 1939, the couple must have spent the time 1938-1941 in another country (Switzerland or given Mor’s Hungarian roots possibly Hungary which was relatively safe for Jews before 1944). Their daughter Ilona survived persecution in exile in London. After the war, the Fekete couple returned to Europe and probably lived in Switzerland until the restitution of their Austrian properties was settled. Gabriele died of a heart attack in Zurich in 1950 and was buried at Zurich Central Cemetery in Zurich-Wiedekon. Her memory lives on in the Gabriele and Mor Fekete Foundation, established in 1951 to set up a Jewish retirement home or hospital. The foundation financed the renovation and new construction of the Hugo Mendel Jewish retirement home in Zurich in 1976. The proceeds from the auction of her portrait also benefit the Hugo Mendel Foundation.

Cross-references

Exhibited

Literature

Provenance

The sitter and her legal heirs Vienna and Zurich.
2024 Auktionshaus Schuler Zürich auction 18.9.2024 Lot 3144.
Unknown private collection USA.