Mister I 1901

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JQAW# P_1901_030
Oil on canvas 125 x 90 cm
Signature: John Q. Ɑdams. 901.
Unknown private collection
Picture: auction catalogue Dorotheum Vienna

Portrait of an unknown gentleman. According to Künstlerhaus exhibition label on back of painting titled as "Portrait of Mister I" (letter i). Due to a complete lack of provenance information the sitter cannot be identified, however due to the early date (pre-1903 no portraits outside the artists wider family are documented) the sitter likely comes from a family associated with the artist, i.e. from the Teltscher, Sobotka, or Hauser families. He may have been a doctor (the depicted redness of the finger bones could be due to the regular use of disinfectants) and thus could possibly be Dr. Ignaz Sobotka (1853–1909), the brother of Adam’s father-in-law, Moritz Sobotka. He was married to Hedwig Hauser, the daughter of Moritz Sobotka’s business partner, Jacob Hauser. According to the Künstlerhaus entry books, Dr. Ignaz Sobotka was an early collector of Adams’s works. The Sobotka and Hauser families were subjected to racial persecution after 1938 and were forced into exile. Their known Adams family portraits, however, remained in Vienna and, under unclear circumstances ended up in private collections or have been lost.

Cross-references

Exhibited

1902 Künstlerhaus Vienna (EL 45 1902 #997)

Literature

Provenance

Unknown.
2026 auction Dorotheum Vienna 23 June, Lot 108.
Unknown private collection (Austria?).