other titles encountered: Enfant terrible, Fear of the mustache
Signed l.d.: L. Löffler-Radymno
Agra-Art auction sticker from 2019 on the reverse.
Bibliography:
- J. Polanowska, Löffler (Loeffler) Leopold, [in:] Słownik artystów polskich i obcych w Polsce działających (zmarłych przed 1966 r.), vol. V, PAN, IS, Warsaw 1996, p. 129 (entire article on pp. 128-133).
Leopold Löffler (Loeffler) - painter of genre and genre-historical scenes; originally studied at the philosophical department of Lviv University. At the same time he studied painting, which he then studied at the Vienna Academy under Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (1845-1846), later in Paris (from 1851 or 1852) and in Munich (1856). He settled permanently in Vienna, where he enjoyed recognition and was appointed a member of the Academy of Fine Arts there. Associated with the circle of Polish painters studying at the Vienna Academy, he was friends with, among others, Artur Grottger, Franciszek Tepa and Juliusz Kossak. He often traveled to the country - to Lviv, Radymno and Krakow, where he eventually moved permanently. From 1877 to 1897 he was a professor at the Cracow School of Fine Arts; his students included Zdzislaw Jasinski, Wojciech Weiss, Wincenty Wodzinowski, Stanislaw Wyspianski, among others. He painted historical and family paintings (Death of Stefan Czarniecki, 1860, Return of a noble family to the ruins of the family home after an attack by Tartars, 1858), portraits and generic bourgeois and rural scenes, created under the clear influence of Waldmüller's painting. The artist's clear anecdote and sentimental charm, excellent drawing and extraordinary precision in rendering details brought these works great popularity at home, in Austria and Hungary. The success led the artist - sometimes even repeatedly - to repeat the same compositions in numerous replicas. His paintings were shown at various exhibitions; primarily at Vienna's Künstlerhaus, but also in Berlin, Munich, Paris, Cologne, Prague, as well as in Krakow, Warsaw, Pownan and Lvov. They were bought for the collections of the emperor, the aristocracy, and numerous German and private collections. Reproduced in reproductions, they "spread throughout the monarchy." To emphasize his nationality, from 1867 the artist often added the word "Radymno" next to his signature, the name of the town where he spent his childhood.
