10426

Frau Ernst Mathes, née Paula Kupelwieser 1903

Head and shoulders, full-face and looking to the viewer, her right hand to her chin and a dark dress or blouse just indicated, with the sleeve coming to her wrist

Soft pencil, heightened with white on Ingres paper, 50 x 36 cm (19 ¾ x 14 ¼ in.)

Inscribed lower right: László FE/ Wien / 1903 Oct 

Private Collection

De László made four portrait drawings in preparation for the important family group portrait of the Kupelwieser family, executed between 1903 and 1907 [10429], while he was living in Vienna. He made fine drawings of the sitter’s father Carl [10890], his wife Bertha [10391] and of of their son Hans [5895]. It may be assumed that all four were presented to the family, although the one of the sitter’s mother Bertha remains untraced.

A half-length oil study of the sitter [10694], in a very similar pose, was destroyed according to the terms of the artist’s will.

Paula Kupelwieser was born in Vienna on 13 February 1875, the daughter of Carl Kupelwieser (1841–1925) and his wife Bertha, née Wittgenstein (1844–1909). In 1899 she married Ernst Mathes (1869–1914), a Major in the Austrian army. They had four children: Peter (born 1900), Wilhelm (born 1902), Elisabeth (born 1903) and Engelbert (born 1904).

Ernst, by then a Lieutenant-Colonel, was killed in action in 1914. Paula lost much of her fortune in the financial crash of 1929. Following the death of her father in 1925, she had inherited 40% of the family estate Seehof in Lunz, Lower Austria,^[1] and she spent the rest of her life there, living with her brother Hans.^[2] She died on 21 September 1938.

LITERATURE:

•Friedrichs, Margret, “Lebens- und Überlebenskunst der Kupelwieser“, in: Stekl, Hannes (ed.), Bürgerliche Familien: Lebenswege im 19. und 20 Jahrhundert, pp. 35–74, Böhlau, Vienna 2000

•DLA033-0050, letter from Hans Kupelwieser to de László, 26 June 1932

AG 2014