HANS FRONIUS* (Sarajevo 1903 - 1988 Mödling) Bundle of three woodcuts Sickbed, 1927 woodcut/paper 29.9 x 24.8 cm signed Hans Fronius, dated 1927 Couple with the cart, 1927 woodcut/paper 30 x 24,9 cm signed Hans Fronius, dated 1927 Dray, 1927 woodcut/paper 31,2 x 23,4 cm signed Hans Fronius, dated 1927 ESTIMATE °€ 150 - € 300 STARTING PRICE € 150 Hans Fronius, great-grandson of the Biedermann painter and engraver Johann Nepomuks Pasini, was an Austrian artist who initially relied entirely on woodcuts. As a child, Fronius witnessed the assassination attempt on the heir to the throne, Franz Ferdinand. This experience is said to have shaped him throughout his life. In July 1914 he moved to Graz with his mother and sister. After the war, their father followed them. From 1922 to 1928 Fronius studied at the Vienna Academy with Karl Sterrer and Alois Delug. He evaded the academic historicism of his teachers and his traditional formal language. His art historical and painting interests lay in the works of Charles Meryon and Goya. James Ensor, Edvard Munch and the German Expressionists were also sources of inspiration. Franz's work pushed him towards pictorial design early on: while still in high school he tried his hand at illustrating Georg Büchner's "Danton's Death", and Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekhov also cast a spell on him. During the holidays, which the father of his painter friend Dolf Winternitz made possible, he went on study trips to Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and France. In 1930 Fronius decided to take the teaching examination for art education, mathematics and descriptive geometry. Teaching, initially at the Fürstenfeld secondary school and from 1960 to 1965 in Mödling, served as his bread and butter. With the dedication of the woodcut sequence for Kafka's story "The Metamorphosis" (1931) to Alfred Kubin, he achieved an artistic breakthrough. A lifelong friendship developed between Fronius and Kafka. Fronius, a member of the Graz Secession since 1923, continued to paint in the Expressionist style during the Nazi era. After the first exhibition of his illustrations of Kafka's work took place at the Prague Art Association in 1936 at Max Brod's instigation, he had to take a stand because of his "Jewish illustrations" and pledge his loyalty. Some of his exhibitions have been repeatedly banned. During the war, Fronius was employed as a frontline draftsman in Stalingrad and Italy. During a short holiday in 1944, 26 chalk drawings of Suetonius Nero from the emperor's biographies were created. In 1961, Fronius moved to Perchtoldsdorf near Vienna. From 1964 until his death in 1988, he worked exclusively as a freelance artist. His painterly and graphic work is described as "expressive realism" due to its spontaneous gesture, narrative power and fantastic imagination. The thematic spectrum ranges from portraits and literary motifs to nature and cityscapes. Fronius also worked as an illustrator and published a total of 115 books and portfolios. His illustrations for works by Franz Kafka and Edgar Allan Poe, which are known to a wide audience, are particularly significant in this respect and can also be seen alongside the 13 drawings for Robert Louis Stevenson. In his autobiographical publication "Picture Book of a Life", Fronius states that he is committed to the "constellation of Goya, Ensor, Kubin" in his work. Further artists and styles: Expressionism, Realism, Oil painting, Lithography, Landscape, Cityscape, Portrait 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 °), a premium of 24% is added to the highest bid. The mandatory sales tax of 13%, for photographys 20%, is added to the sum of the highest bid and the buyer's premium. The buyer's premium amounts to 28% in case of differential taxation. The sales tax is included in the differential taxation.