Old Masters - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2011 - 170 Euro Cent

Hans Makart - born on May 28, 1840 in Salzburg, died on October 3, 1884 in Vienna - was a well-known Austrian painter and decorative artist. He is considered the representative painter of the so-called "Ringstrasse epoch" par excellence. About the person: As a young talent called from the imperial house to Vienna, Hans Makart made career quickly. His paintings were hugely popular with the aspiring bourgeoisie and soon became a gauge of social recognition and reputation. Makart knew how to use the new possibilities at the beginning of the industrial age to popularize his work and his own aesthetic. His subjects became trademarks and mirror images of his time and caused a great sensation both nationally and internationally. The recognition and esteem given to Makart, as well as his painterly conception of color, which points to Delacroix as a precursor, suggest a comparison with the international art of his time. His intense painterly engagement with the operas of Richard Wagner shows his sense for the new artistic developments. The designs of Gottfried Semper, a friend of Richard Wagner's, inspired Makart's own architectural fantasies, which prove his interest in the Gesamtkunstwerk. Today Hans Makart stands not only for huge canvases in effective coloristic painting, but also for excessive star cult and the splendor of an entire era. Hardly any other Austrian artist could achieve such a prominent position in the 19th century as the "painter prince". Beyond painting, however, Makart, as the universal "designer" of the Ringstrasse era, also had a significant influence on theater, home decor and clothing style; In the 1870s he set off in Vienna a veritable "Makart fashion". Two important Viennese museums - the Lower Belvedere as well as the Wien Museum in the Künstlerhaus - will be showing exhibitions of works by Hans Makart from 9 June. Under the titles "Painter of the Senses" or "An Artist Rules the City", the art-interested public can marvel at the broad oeuvre of this important artist. The two motifs on this special stamp block show excerpts from the well-known paintings "Portrait of Dora Fournier-Gabillon" (left, nominal 0.70 €) and "The Triumph of Ariadne" (right, nominal 1.70 €).