Friedrich König

Friedrich König
1857 Vienna – 1941 Vienna
From the Saga of the Nibelungs
Oil on canvas, 159 x 205 cm
signed l.l.
On the reverse:
Exhibition label of the Munich Secession
Provenance:
Modern Gallery Heinrich Tannhauser, Munich
Secession, Munich
Private collection, Vienna

Friedrich König was a founding member of the world-famous Vienna Secession. Together with Josef Engelhart, Rudolf Bacher and Maximilian Lenz, F. König formed his own circle within the Secessionists. In his work, the painter captivates with figurative scenes as well as in his landscape paintings and the particularly fragrant, delicate impressions. His work impressively demonstrates the artistic design of Art Nouveau and Symbolism in painting.

He studied at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts and from 1878 to 1883 at the Vienna Academy under Christian Griepenkerl, August Eisenmenger and Carl von Blaas, after which he moved to Munich and became a student at the Munich Academy. Study trips took him to Italy, France, Germany and Spain. In addition to poster ideas and picture contributions for the magazine “Ver Sacrum”, he also designed the interior decoration for the 1st exhibition of the Vienna Secession in 1897. From 1898 to 1899 he created murals for a room of the architect Josef Olbrich in Hinterbrühl near Vienna. Around 1900, König produced two paintings that were intended as wall coverings for the music room in Karl Wittgenstein’s city palace in what was then Alleestraße, today Argentinierstraße.

As a founding member, König was represented at the majority of Secession exhibitions until 1939. In 1901 and 1904, he exhibited works at the Great Art Exhibition in Dresden and in 1901 and 1909 at the Glaspalast and the Secession in Munich, and in 1911 at the International Art Exhibition in Rome.

In 1929, Friedrich König was honored by the Vienna Secession as its oldest member with a collective exhibition of his works on his 70th birthday. His companion Josef Engelhart wrote about him: “The viewer who steps in front of Friedrich König’s works immediately senses that a deeply inward artist is speaking to him here, a painter who traces nature with almost feminine tenderness, a poet for whom pen and brush are the means to depict his dreams.”

Works by his hand can be found at:
Belvedere, Vienna
Vienna Museum, Vienna
Leopold Museum, Vienna
and numerous public and private collections in Austria and abroad.