ALFRED GERSTENBRAND* (Vienna 1881 - 1977 Melk) Portrait of Anton Hanak, around 1925 oil/fibre board 78 x 72 cm signed Alfred Gerstenbrand verso inscribed A. Gerstenbrand, "Bildhauer Prof. Hanak", as well as exhibition label Künstlerhaus 1931, and charcoal sketch of a market scene in Salzburg ESTIMATE °€ 2600 - 5000 STARTING PRICE °€ 2600 Anton Hanak studied under Edmund Hellmer at the Vienna Academy and was a member of the Vienna Secession and the Wiener Werkstätte as well as a founding member of the Österreichischer Werkbund. Hanak was a teacher at the Vienna School of Applied Arts and, from 1932, a professor at the Vienna Academy. Among others, Fritz Wotruba, Oskar Icha and Rudolf Reinhart studied with him. He was in correspondence with the Graz artist Rita Passini between 1913 and 1916. He created the sculptural decoration for several of Josef Hoffmann's buildings (including Villa Skywa-Primavesi, Landhaus Primavesi, Landhaus Ast) and, in the 1920s, for residential buildings owned by the municipality of Vienna. He created numerous portrait busts and monuments, including the Schmerzensmutter war memorial at Vienna's Central Cemetery, erected in 1925, and the bust of Victor Adler for the Republic Monument. His works have a visionary-symbolic character with some proximity to Expressionism, for example "The Last Man" from 1917 or "The Burning Man" from 1922. "The Burning Man" is considered an icon of modern sculpture in Austria. PLEASE NOTE: The purchase price consists of the highest bid plus the buyer's premium, sales tax and, if applicable, the fee of artists resale rights. In the case of normal taxation (marked ° at the estimate), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. This amounts to 13% for paintings, drawings, graphic works and sculptures and 20% for photographs and all other items. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.