Rosengarten

Prior to studying with August Schaeffer and Emil Schindler at the Vienna Academy, Olga Wisinger-Florian was a trained pianist. However, as Schindler's most talented pupil she quickly gained recognition in Vienna as an accomplished landscape and flower painter. Olga Wisinger-Florian's reputation as an artist grew with international exhibitions in the 1880s and she received awards for her work in Paris in 1888 and again at the Exposition Universelle in 1900. Additional recognition came in London in 1891 and she was awarded a gold medal in Vienna in 1897. In Austria her contribution to the Viennese art scene was enhanced by her leadership of the Verein der Schriftstellerinnen und Künstlerinnen in Wien, Vienna's first all female artists and writers association, which she co-founded in 1885.
Rosengarten is one of the most impressive of Olga Wisinger-Florian's paintings to come to auction in recent years. According to an old label on the reverse of the painting, Rosengarten was exhibited at the Leipziger Kunstverein in Leipzig. Research at the Leipzig Museum has not yielded a precise date for this exhibition, however, it has been confirmed that the painting was included in an exhibtion there (no. 4388) between 1889-1905. It does not appear that the painting has been shown in public since this date as it has remained in private collections until the present day. Consequently the work is in original condition with rich and lively surviving impasto (fig. 1). The paint has been applied thickly to each petal and rose bud and the finished composition results in a lively paint surface which remains untouched by restoration.