Lot 75: Gottlieb Theodor Kempf von Hartenkampf (Austrian, 1871-1964)

The picklers signed and dated 'GvKempf 1913' (lower right) oil and pencil on panel 10 x 15 5/8 in. (25.4 x 39.8 cm.) Painted in 1913 PROVENANCE Dominion Gallery, Montreal, where purchased by the husband of the present owner. NOTES Gottlieb Kempf, as this artist is often referred to in short, attended the Akademie der Bildenden Knste in Vienna. Amongst his tutors were Julius Berger and Leopold Karl Mller under whom he developed in the academic tradition. Simultaneously, however, he learnt to etch tutored by the Austrian etcher William Unger. In 1899 Kempf worked as an illustrator for the Meggendorfer Bl„tter, a journal founded twelve years earlier by Lothar Meggendorfer to publish his writings and often satirical drawings. Kempf worked on a series titled the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy in Words and Pictures and Allegories and Emblems. Also in 1899 he began showing works at the exhibitions of the Vienna Secession, continuing to do so until 1901. Kempf exhibited with various other groups in Vienna, including the Gesellschaft bildender Knstler Wiens, of which he became a member in 1902. The following year he established his own group of artists in Fahrafeld near B”heimkirchen including the artists Josef Jungwirth, Anton Karlinsky and Fritz Sch”npflug. Together they depicted scenes from daily life in Austria, Kempf returning to his painterly beginnings.