9048

Poster for the Wiener Musikfestwoche 1912

A death mask of Beethoven crowned in a laurel wreath painted trompe l’oeil in an architectural surround, with the music festival information printed beneath

Lithograph, 63 x 40 cm (24 ⅞ x 15 ¾ in.)

Inscribed lower right: P.A. DE LASZLO

Translation of German text: [Viennese / Music Week / 21 June–1 July 1912 / Concert / of the / Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Beethoven: IX. Symphony. / Anton Bruckner: IX. Symphony. / Gustav Mahler: IX. Symphony (premiere). / Gluck • Haydn • Mozart • Brahms • Hugo Wolf. / Mass in E flat major by Schubert. / Coronation mass by Liszt (court orchestra) / Vocal concerts: / “Folk music in Austria” / (Viennese Male Choral Society • Schubertbund • Choral Society of the Austrian Railway Officials / Viennese Acapella Choir etc.) / Conductors: Artur Nikisch • Franz Schalk • Bruno Walter • Felix Weingartner / Gala performances: / At the k.k. Court opera (Mozart: “Figaro”, Smetana: “Dalibor”); / At the k.k. Court theatre (Grillparzer, Anzengruber); / Gala performance of the “Verschwender” by Raimund / (with Alexander Girardi, Hansi Niese, and members of the Court theatre) / Summer fête at the Kobenzl including performances of compositions by Lanner and Strauss / excursion by ship to the Wachau • Art rambles. / Information: Konzertdirektion Albert Gutmann (Hugo / Knepler) and at the Concert Bureau of / the k.k. Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, 1. district, Giselastraße n° 12.]

MAK, Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna^[1]

The industrialist Wilhelm (Vilmos) Kestranek, a great friend of de László, who painted him in 1908 [111018], was instrumental in the organisation of the first Wiener Musikwoche (Viennese Music Week) in 1912, the forerunner of the Vienna Festival. He himself travelled to Leipzig to persuade (or rather bully) the great conductor Artur Nikisch to come to Vienna to take part. It was Kestranek's idea to ask de László to design a poster for this festival which de László gladly undertook, despite pressure of work in London at that time (early 1912). It is nevertheless a sign of the high esteem for de László and the intended prestigious standing of the festival that Kestranek asked him to carry out this rather mundane task. De László's poster, incorporating a mask of Beethoven that hung on de László's studio wall set into the neo-classical frame that can also be seen in photographs of de László's studio, was used to advertise the orchestral concerts, which included the first performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, conducted by Bruno Walter. The poster for the chamber concerts was designed by the young Egon Schiele. The posters were printed by one of Austria’s most important printing companies, Christoph Reisser’s Söhne, Wien, which had close relations to contemporary artists and still exists today under a different name.

In February 1912 Wilhelm Kestranek impatiently reminded the artist several times of the design for the poster.^[2] Two months later the work was finally completed and in a letter from 12 April Kestranek thanked de László “… personally for the magnificent poster. I myself and everybody concerned for the success of the Music Festival Week owe you a huge debt of gratitude. The poster is tremendously effective and very dignified – just as I had wanted it to be. We will use the image for all announcements, programmes etc. and it will become the brand of the Viennese Music Festival Week. [...] The Committee was thrilled with your work and touched by your selflessness. Of course I made a big deal about our friendship!”^[3]

It was not de László’s first attempt to make a poster. In 1892 he had already designed an advertisement for one of the largest Budapest newspapers, the Budapesti Hírlap, showing a girl selling the paper [112095 and 112096]. According to his memoirs, the present picture was his first experience with lithography.^[4] 

Another design for a poster or an advertisement, for a Hungarian fairy tale for children [112105 and 112106] which is undated, remains in the possession of descendants of the artist.

LITERATURE:

•Mascha, Ottokar, Österreichische Plakatkunst, Verlag Löwy, Wien 1915, pl. 173

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His

Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 129.

•DLA031-0105, letter from Wilhelm Kestranek to de László, 8 February 1912

•DLA031-0084, letter from Wilhelm Kestranek to de László, 25 February 1912

•DLA031-0089, letter from Wilhelm Kestranek to de László, 12 April 1912

AT & CWS 2013