11810

Frau Johann Oser, née Josephine Wittgenstein 1900

Half-length, seated slightly to the left, looking full-face to the viewer, wearing a dark dress or jacket over a white blouse with a lace jabot tied in a bow, an emerald brooch at her neck, earrings and a long gold necklace

Oil on canvas, 85.1 x 66 cm (33 ½ x 26 in.)

Inscribed lower right: László  F.E. / B’pest 1900 XII 

Sitters’ Book I, opp. f. 49: Josephine Oser [among other signatures dated 1900]

Private Collection

Josephine Oser signed the artist’s Sitters' Book on the same page as her husband Johann [11207], their daughter Hedwig and other members of the Oser family. Joseph Joachim [5850], the celebrated Hungarian violinist and Josephine’s mother’s cousin was painted the same year and signed the book on the same page, dating it 12 December 1900. The sitter’s husband Johann was painted in 1904 to make a pair to the present portrait. Both portraits remain in their identical frames. De László also painted two portraits of their daughter Bertha in 1905 in Vienna [10135] and [10088]; the latter was rejected and unsigned. Josephine’s brother Karl Wittgenstein was an important patron of the artist and his wife Leopoldine was painted in 1904 [9929].

The present portrait was exhibited in 1901 at the Künstlerhaus, Vienna. A letter written by Hedwig to her sister Lydia describes the excitement of a visit by the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph [12700]: “In March I heard that the Sezession [sic] has now been opened, and I must tell you how it happened that his Majesty has praised the picture of Frau Hofrat Oser, as you can read in the Neue Freie Presse to-day.^[1] Papa was told that the Kaiser asked who the lady was; de László told him it was Frau Professor Oser, a lady from Vienna. The Kaiser thought she had a very interesting face. You can imagine how Papa enjoyed this remark, and went back to the exhibition to view again a long time the portrait. Our cook Anna and the maids were equally thrilled.”^[2] 

The present portrait was painted in Budapest. The sitter’s granddaughter clearly recalled that the two families met in Budapest, and later in Vienna, between 1900 and 1905 and that there was a friendship between Bertha Oser, Josephine’s daughter, and Lucy, the artist’s wife, who was then newly married and had come to live in Budapest in 1900. The de Lászlós moved to Vienna in 1904 and lived there until their permanent departure for England in 1907.  

Josephine Wittgenstein was born in Leipzig in 1844, the fourth of eleven children of Fanny Figdor (1814-1890)^[3] and Hermann Wittgenstein (1802-1878) from Leipzig. The family lived in the Palais Wittgenstein in Vienna, which suffered bomb damage and looting during the Second World War and was subsequently demolished. She studied singing with Josef Gänsbacher^[4] and for several years sang in concerts at the Musikverein. The Wittgensteins also raised Fanny Figdor’s young cousin, Joseph Joachim [5847], whom they met when visiting relations in Hungary. He was a talented violinist and Fanny persuaded his parents to allow the boy of eight to live with them in Leipzig, and Vienna, to pursue a musical career. Hermann Wittgenstein was a friend of Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847), who became Joseph Joachim’s mentor. The Osers moved in the same social and musical circle as the young de László and his wife, when they were living in Vienna.

In Portrait of a Painter de László recalled: “Among the famous artists who often visited Vienna in those days was Professor Joseph Joachim. We attended all his famous quartette concerts. We had the pleasure of welcoming him to our house, and frequently met him at Johann Oser’s, the well-known doctor.”^[5]

In September 1872 Josephine Wittgenstein married Johann Nepomuk Oser (1833-1912), son of Johann Oser (1799-1866) and his wife Barbara Edlinger (1805-1883). There were four children of the marriage: Hedwig (born 1873), Franz (born 1874), Bertha (born 1878), and Lydia (born 1882). Her family remember her as a very bright lady with an alert mind. These qualities are apparent in de László’s portrait, as noticed by the Emperor. She was a perfectionist and meticulous in everything she did, enjoyed needlework and was still accomplished in this art aged 85. She died in Vienna in 1933.

PROVENANCE:

By descent in the family

EXHIBITED:

•Vienna Künstlerhaus, 1901^[6]

LITERATURE:

•Owen Rutter, Portrait of a Painter, London, 1939, p. 221

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 87

•DLA044-0057, letter from de László to Vilmos Fraknói, 31 March 1901

•DLA090-0250, “Aus dem Wiener Künstlerhause” [From the Vienna Künstlerhaus], Pester Lloyd, 22 March 1901, p. 2

•Letter from Hedwig Oser to her sister Lydia, 1901

CWS & BS 2020