Dr. Gustav Marchet ca. 1912/13

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JQAW# P_1913_120
Oil on canvas dimensions unknown
Signature: unknown but likely John Quincy Ɑdams
Work lost

Dr. Gustav Marchet, 29.5.1846 Baden to 27.4.1916 Schlackenwerth (Ostrov, CZ), jurist, professor, rector and politician (member of parliament, Minister of Culture/Education), whose reforms (phylloxera control and restoration of Austrian viticulture, creation of technical secondary schools and the state academy [now university] of music) are still effective today. See also his entries in the OeBL as well as in Österr. Musiklexikon.

This lost portrait is known in archive documents only from the 1913 exhibition catalog of the Künstlerhaus exhibition at the Müvészház Budapest, where it appears only as a "portrait". It was possible to identify the sitter from an exhibition review in the newspaper Pester Lloyd 21.12.1913 p.15, where it was described as a portrait of the "former Minister Marchet", which refers to Marchet's function as Minister of Culture (Education) in the period 1906-1908.

Dr. Gustav Marchet was often portrayed, among others by Heinrich von Angeli (1840-1925, original lost, copy survives), Heinrich Stalzer (1878-1943), and Viktor Stauffer (1852-1934, original and copy), portraits that can be found in various relevant institutions in Vienna (Belvedere Museum, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences, Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, Museums of the City of Baden). In contrast, the Adams portrait has unfortunately been lost since the 1913 exhibition. It is to be feared that even if the painting has survived somewhere, its significance in terms of the historical merits of the sitter and the artistic value of the Adams portrait have probably been forgotten.

Cross-references

Exhibited

1913 Exhibition of the Künstlerhaus Vienna in the Müvészház, Budapest #2 ("Portrait").

Literature

Provenance

Work lost since the 1913 exhibition.