Olga Wisinger-Florian - Buy or sell works
1 November 1844, Vienna (Austria) - 27 February 1926, Grafenegg (Austria)
Olga Wisinger-Florian is one of the most important Austrian painters of the 19th century, alongside Tina Blau and Marie Egner. Her work focuses, in particular, on landscape and flower paintings, which also frequently come up for sale at Dorotheum auctions. Like paintings by Emil Jakob Schindler, Tina Blau, and Carl Moll, her pieces number among the works of Stimmungsimpressionismus.
Wisinger-Florian was taught painting as a child, but then devoted herself increasingly to music. Julius Epstein, who was also Gustav Mahler’s teacher, gave her piano lessons. She was forced, however, to give up her career as a concert pianist for health reasons (the movement of her hands was restricted due to an illness).
After Olga Wisinger-Florian’s marriage to Franz Wisinger, a pharmacist some 20 years her senior, and the birth of her son, she turned to studying painting once again. Melchior Fritsch, August Schaeffer and Emil Jakob Schindler were her teachers. Together with Schindler, Marie Egner and Carl Moll, she spent time at Plankenberg Castle and undertook study trips, for example to Italy, which had a great influence on her.
Olga Wisinger-Florian as an important artist
From 1881 onwards, Olga Wisinger-Florian regularly exhibited at the Vienna Künstlerhaus. Emperor Franz Joseph also bought a landscape painting from her at his annual exhibition in 1886. Her art also caused a sensation internationally, such as at the world exhibitions in Chicago and Paris, or at art shows in Munich, Berlin, Prague and London.
From 1883, she ran a studio for schoolgirls, including a handful of daughters from noble families, which further expanded her circle of buyers.
Since women were generally not allowed to become members of artists’ associations, such as the Genossenschaft bildender Künstler Wiens (Künstlerhaus) or the Vereinigung bildender Künstler Wiens (Secession), Wisinger-Florian joined forces with Marie Egner, Marianne von Eschenburg, Susanne Granitsch, Marie Müller, Teresa Feodorowna Ries, Eugenie Breithut-Munk and Bertha von Tarnóczy to form the ‘Acht Künstlerinnen’ association of female artists, which organised exhibitions of art by women for many years.
Olga Wisinger-Florian’s keen interest in the cultural sector and her social commitment led her to become active in other associations, such as the Verein der Schriftstellerinnen und Künstlerinnen, which she also presided over as president, or the Verein zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus run by Bertha von Suttner, with whom she had a close friendship.
Health problems and worsening blindness forced her to withdraw from social life, with Olga Wisinger-Florian spending her days in a country house in Grafenegg from 1912 until her death in 1926.