Carl Moll (1861-1945), Large Painting „ Villa in Vienna“, 1905 Oil on canvas Austria, around 1905 Carl Moll (1861-1945) – Austrian painter Signed lower left, “C. Moll” Overall measurements, framed: 116 x 116 cm; Measurements of the painting: 100 x 100 cm Good and original condition Provenance: from a Southern German private Collection; from the 1920s onwards it was in the property of a priest in Moravian Ostrava who was a relative of the present owners Carl Moll’s large scale, often square landscape paintings and views of the Hohe Warte in Vienna are amongst the most sought-after of the Austrian Secession; only recently a smaller painting from the Rau collection (Speisezimmer I) fetched more than 360.000 Euros (incl. buyers premium) at Lempertz. The Austrian artist Carl Moll painted this fabulous work showing a Villa – presumably from the Hohe Warte in Vienna –around 1905. Already in 1899 had Moll, together with Koloman Moser (1868-1918), Victor Spitzer and the photographer Hugo Henneberg (1863-1918), decided to found an artists’ colony and they ordered Joseph Maria Olbrich (1867-1908) to build four villas on the Hohe Warte, a hill district in Vienna (the buildings were finished by Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956) when Olbrich was called to Germany later on). The colony was meant to be an architectonical manifest of the Viennese Secession, built to represent the ideal combination of art and life. Moll moved into his Villa in 1901, together with Koloman Moser; their house had been built as duplex from the inside, but pretending to be one house from the outside. Each of the artists had his own atelier in the attic of the house. From now on, the colony on the Hohe Warte and its magnificent surroundings in one of Vienna’s most exclusive districts served as an infinite source for new motifs for Moll and he painted his habitat in all times of the day and the year. The painting at hand by Moll shows a lawn recovering from winter dormancy and covered with trees, whose leaves have just begun to sprout. An arc-shaped pathway leads towards the Villa. An elegantly dressed lady is seen entering the house. The facade covers almost the entire upper half of the image, only half-covered by the young green of the trees. It is quite possible that the building shown is the Villa Ast, seen from its garden. As always with Moll, the painting is covered with bright spots of light, seemingly random and yet applied with great precision. Like no other artist, Moll was able to breathe life to his paintings by the naturally placed light. The painting can quite precisely be dated to around 1905 as the artist has preferred these square, large canvases during this period; also, the signature “C. Moll” was used by Carl Moll in these years in contrast to later, when he started to sign his paintings with his monogram. The painting by Carl Moll is in good and original condition. It shows no restoration marks and hardly any craquelure. There are few scratches on the surface and two line-like traces of dirt (water) in the lower left section. The work is signed “C. Moll“ lower left and set in a plain frame from the 1920s which measures 116 x 116 cm. The canvas itself measures 100 x 100 cm. Carl Moll (1861-1945) Carl Moll was born in 1861 in Vienna and initially studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown under Christian Griepenkerl Griepenkerl (1839-1912). Later he was a student and assistant of the landscape painter Emil Jakob Schindler (1842-1892) whose painting „Altwasser der Traun bei Goisern“ fascinated the young Moll so much that he wanted Schindler and only Schindler to be his future tutor. Over several years, Moll lived in close contact with Schindler and his family – he even moved in for some time – and Moll married Schindler’s widow after Schindler’s death. The couple regularly entertained a large circle of intellectuals, amongst them Gustav Klimt, Josef Hoffmann and Joseph Maria Olbrich. Moll presented his painting „Römische Ruine von Schönbrunn“ in 1890 in the Wiener Künstlerhaus where it was bought immediately by the Emperor Franz Joseph. In 1897 he co-founded the Vienna Secession, which he left together with Gustav Klimt in 1905. Eventually he ran the Galerie Miethke in Vienna, which developed into an important centre of the early Modernism under his guidance. Moll was an important figure in the art scene in Austria and Germany; he travelled a lot, negotiated and organized exhibitions and also promoted young artists such as Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele. He was in close contact to many of the important big names of the art world of the time, such as Alfred Lichtwark, Emil Orlik, Julius Meier-Graefe, Max Liebermann and others. His step-daughter, Alma Schindler, married the famous composer Gustav Mahler and was later known for being Oskar Kokoschka’s lover as well as Walter Gropius’ wife; after Gropius’ death, Alma married the author Franz Werfel, together with whom she also moved to the Hohe Warte where they lived in the Villa Ast and kept an open house for the Austrian intellectual scene just like her parents had done before her. Starting Bid :34000