Anton Einsle (1801 - 1871)

Anton Einsle b Vienna, 30 January 1801; d Vienna, 10 March 1871 Anton Einsle was in great demand as a portrait painter by the Austrian aristocracy, church dignitaries and Viennese high society. Appointed painter to the court in 1838, he was given a studio of his own in the Hofburg [Imperial Palace]. Between 1848 and 1850 he painted around 30/40 portraits of Emperor Franz Joseph I (r. 1848 – 1916), and also portrayed the young Empress Elisabeth. Einsle's clients appreciated his finely elaborated works, which render the subjects in an extremely lifelike style, as unassuming yet highly distinguished. Einsle showed a talent for drawing at a very early age, and at 13 he started a course in engraving under sculptor and painter Josef Klieber at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts, where in 1817, aged only 16, he was awarded the Gundel Prize (endowed in 1782 by Imperial Court Councillor Paul Anton von Gundel). From 1820, he devoted himself to painting, and from 1821 until 1828 studied history painting with artists including Josef Redl. His first commissions for miniatures and portraits in oils date back to 1827, the year he received the Lampi Prize and moved to Prague, where he was to be found in Budapest until 1832, before returning to Vienna. In order to satisfy all the wishes of his clientèle, he had to employ numerous assistants. Stylistically, the artist developed from the classical ideal in his early years to a more natural representation sensitively reflecting the subject's physiognomy (see Anna Szalay donation: The artist's daughter Anna: Anna Hüffel, née Einsle). His role models were Moritz Daffinger and Friedrich von Amerling, who imparted to him essential features of English portraiture. Einsle's œuvre ranges from simple bust portraits with a neutral background – particularly during his early career – to full-figure portraits in a imaginary, idealised landscape. The atmosphere of his paintings is defined by well-balanced colour tonality and use of light. Besides portraits of contemporaries, Einsle painted historical, mythological and Christian subjects (see Anna Szalay donations Apostle and David with the head of Goliath). In both works, the artist's study of 17th-century Bolognese and Dutch painting is clearly recognisable. In particular, painters such as Guido Reni and Gerrit (Gerard) Dou provided inspiration for the subject and the tone-on-tone painting (cf. Gerrit (Gerard) Dou's Self-portrait in a Window in the Residenzgalerie Salzburg, inv. no. 536).

Author: Habersatter Thomas