Painter Max Schödl ca 1919/20

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¾ Portrait in sitting position, right profile view. The painter is sitting in front of an easel on which a miniature painting is attached, his right hand is raised, holding a brush, in his left hand a palette, several brushes and a painting stick. He wears a dark suit, his hair and beard are white-haired, on his nose a pincher. Background: flat wall, structured by brush strokes.

JQAW# P_1920_010
Oil on canvas, dimensions unknown
Signature: Ɑdams
Private collection Austria, current location unconfirmed.
B/W photo: Künstlerhaus Archive, Vienna.

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Max Schödl 2.2.1834 Vienna to 23.3.1921 Vienna, Künstlerhaus member and miniature painter. See his entry in the OeBL.
The painter Schödl received his training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and from the still life painter F. von Friedländer. From 1869 he was a member of the Künstlerhaus (there, due to his generous donations, holding both honorary titles as founding member and benefactor), where as of 1904 he was also a member of the Watercolorists' Club (to which Adams also belonged). After early works as a portrait and genre painter he concentrated after ca. 1870 exclusively on miniature still lifes, often with oriental objects. His works are finely painted and naturalistic in high quality and were highly sought after at the time (also internationally), but are not very appreciated in today's art market as eclectic, Markart-era "arts and crafts" (OeBL). Schödl was also a passionate art collector himself (s. the auction catalogue of the estate of his widow Irma Sch.). His whimsical, somewhat quirky personality has survived in numerous anecdotes (serving the cliché of the absent-minded professor) (see, for example, Georg Markus, Das Heitere Lexikon der Österreicher, Amalthea Wien, 2003, p.173).

The present portrait, which Adams made of his aged painter colleague Schödel around 1919/20, can probably be understood as a friendly homage, in order to hand down to posterity an affectionate portrait of his colleague shortly before his death (another Schödl portrait from the Stiftergalerie of the Künstlerhaus, made by Hans Temple in 1901, is lost). Unfortunately, no color illustration could be obtained from the present owners. (Who doesn't know the art collector who jealously guards his collection and won't let anyone look at it? But at least the work is in appreciative hands.) Besides Schödl, Adams only portrayed his fellow painter and friend Karl Ludwig Prinz (in his 1911 painting Chaconne). Furthermore, no painter portraits of Adams are known, which is remarkable for such a prolific portrait painter and active Künstlerhaus member.
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Cross-references

Max Schödl 1897 - A view of his studio. WienMuseum Inv.# 55408

Exhibited

1948 Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Exhibition 80 years Künstlerhaus Vienna, catalogue #1 (w. ill.).

1961 Centennial Exhibition Künstlerhaus Vienna.

Literature

APH, catalog raisonné JQA 1995, p. 253, cat.#220, fig.#153.

Provenance

Unknown.
1961 Dr. Eugen Schopf, Vienna.
From his widow before 1986 to the Strnad family, Vienna.
Private collection Austria.