Page 33 - Lienz Treasure Chest

Albin Egger-Lienz (1868 – 1926) the town’s most famous son

Born as the illegitimate child of
Maria Trojer and Georg Egger, a
church painter and photographer,
he was baptized Ingenuin Albuin
Trojer. Not until 1877 did he receive
permission to bear the family name
of Egger. After attending primary
school in Lienz, he studied painting
at the Academy of Fine Arts in Mu-
nich with the support of his father
and the acquainted painter Hugo
Engl. The first recorded use of the
name Egger-Lienz was in 1891.
After studying, he lived alternately
in Munich and East Tyrol as a free-
lance painter. In 1899, Egger-Lienz
married Laura Egger von Möllwald
and settled down in Vienna.
The artist Albin Egger-Lienz, 1907.
There, in 1900, he joined the So-
ciety of Visual Artists of Vienna and
co-founded the Hagenbund art group, and in 1090, he joined the
Viennese Secession. In 1910, he was nominated as a professor
by the professorial staff of the Viennese Academy of Fine Arts.
However, the appointment was prevented by imperial heir Franz
Ferdinand. Likely reasons for this include Egger’s participation in
the Secession, which Franz Ferdinand opposed, as well as the fact
that Egger had exhibited the painting “Der Totentanz Anno Neun”
(“Dance of Death Year ’09”) as part of the exhibition to celebra-
te Emperor Franz Joseph’s 60th year on the throne. The picture The world’s largest Egger-Lienz collection in the museum of Schloss Bruck.
was neither patriotic nor – considering the emperor’s advanced
age – respectful. Egger-Lienz differed from his contemporaries by
emphasising physical forms and monumentality. They were radi- Chapel designed by Clemens Holzmeister, for which he also pain-
cally opposed to the decorativity of Art Nouveau. Stylistically, strict ted “The Resurrection of Christ”. After protests against the plain,
reduction became more and more important to him from 1910 on- simplistic painting – by the dean, among others – the Holy Office in
wards. “I paint shapes, not people”, he said. Rome proclaimed a ban on holding church services in the chapel.
In his final years of life, Egger-Lienz received an honorary doctorate
The following year, Egger-Lienz settled in Hall in Tyrol, where he from the University of Innsbruck and was named an honorary citi-
interacted with the artists of the Brenner circle. In 1912, he taught zen of Lienz. He died on 4 November 1926 at the Grünwald estate
at the Grand-Ducal Art School of Weimar for a year. After spending in St. Justina. Currently, Egger-Lienz is an “up-and-coming” artist
a summer in Katwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, where he painted regarding the demand of collectors, art lovers and art experts.
the sea and dunes, he settled in St. Justina near Bozen/Bolzano.
In Klausen, some of his pupils ran an art school under his direction. The value of his paintings is steadily increasing. One person
In 1915 he was drafted into the Standschützen rifle company and paid 700,000 euros for the “Dance of Death” at an auction. The
designed war postcards. In 1919 and 1925, he was offered the work – restituted in 2006 – had been part of the world’s largest
position of professor at the Viennese Academy, which he refused Egger-Lienz collection at the Schloss Bruck museum up until then.
both times. From 1923 to 1925 he worked on the War Memorial

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