Exhibition: Franz von Defregger. Myth – Abuse – Modernity

Hardly any Tyrolean painter is associated with the Tyrolean as much as Franz von Defregger (1835-1921). In his time, the academy professor who taught in Munich was world-famous. Today his work is regarded by many as dusty and outdated. The curators of the exhibition "Defregger. Myth - Abuse - Modernity", which runs at the Ferdinandeum until 16 May 2021, want to change this.

To this end, they also deal with previously unknown and neglected sides of Defregger - his meticulous separation between public and private painting, for example, his business acumen and his fame far beyond Europe.

Franz von Defregger, who grew up on the Ederhof in the East Tyrolean village of Dölsach, attended the trade school in Innsbruck. He graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, interrupted by a two-year stay in Paris. During this stay he came into contact with contemporary art movements.

The career of the artist was extraordinary. Already his first history painting "Speckbacher and his son Anderl in the Bear Inn at St. Johann" (1869) made him famous. In the following decades Defregger created countless genre and history paintings.

In the private sphere, he showed far more facets in terms of motifs and style. This is underlined by many works still in the family's possession, which are being presented to the public for the first time in this exhibition. For example, he repeatedly portrayed his wife Anna and their seven children. Defregger also produced nudes and obviously had an interest in foreign cultures.

This is evident, for example, in the 1862 painting of an African with a white headscarf . But also in the portrait of the Indian chief Rocky Bear, who visited Defregger in his Munich studio in 1890.

The painter had an unerring business sense. He exploited the potential of (new) reproduction media. Many of his subjects were printed in magazines and journals and thus distributed en masse. Through Franz Hanfstaengl 's art publishing house in Munich, Defregger circulated reproductions of his works and achieved international fame from New York to Sydney, from London to Vienna.

There was no lack of customers with purchasing power. Thus commissioned William Henry Vanderbiltthe richest man in America, commissioned Defregger directly for a painting in 1881. Delivered to America and registered in the records of the entrepreneur, the trace of the work was later lost.

In the course of their research, the curators were able to locate the painting in a German private collection. In the exhibition, "Gute Aussicht" is now being presented to the public for the first time. When US interest in Defregger waned, some of the paintings returned to Europe.

The fact that Nazi greats, above all Hitler, appropriated Defregger's genre and history paintings had a detrimental effect on Defregger's reception after the Second World War. While at the beginning of the 20th century he already had the image of a stylistically deadlocked painter, this added a further stigma.

Spread over two floors, the exhibition "Defregger. Myth - Abuse - Modernity" attempts to add some remarkable facets to Defregger's well-known image and thus to refresh his position in art history.

"Defregger.Myth- Abuse - Modernity"
curated by Peter Scholz, Angelika Irgens-Defregger and Helmut Hess
until 16 May 2021 at the

Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum
Museumstraße 15
6020 Innsbruck
Tel. +43 512 594 890
Opening hours: Tue-Sun, 9am-5pm
Tel +43 512 594 89 - 180
Mail besucherservice@tiroler-landesmuseen.at
www.tiroler-landesmuseen.at

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Photos, unless otherwise stated: © Susanne Gurschler