Hans Makart Biography | Oil Paintings

Hans Makart received his initial training in painting at the age of eleven between 1850 and 1851 at the Vienna Academy from Johann Fischbach. Makart, had a passion and love of color but was bad at drawing, and was always anxious to get away from the routine of school drawing classes. His teachers thought he was devoid of all talent and forced him to leave the Vienna Academy. He later went to Munich, and after two years of self-study, he attracted the attention of Karl Theodor von Piloty, who saw his potential and took him as a student between 1861 and 1865. It was during this time that he developed his future painting style.

During these years, Hans Makart also traveled to London, Paris, and Rome to further his art studies. The first oil painting he painted under Piloty, Lavoisier in Prison, though it was considered timid and conventional, it attracted attention by its use of color. In his next work, Nymphe and Troubadour, he first displayed the decorative qualities to which he afterward sacrificed everything else in his work. With his next two artworks, Modern Amoretti and The Plague in Florence, his fame became established.

The Prince Von Hohenlohe provided Hans Makart with an old foundry to use as a studio. He slowly transformed it into a great place brimming with sculptures, flowers, and musical instruments. In the end, his studio resembled a salon and turned into a social meeting point in Vienna. The opulent, semi-public spaces of the studio were the scene of a recurring rendezvous between the artist and his public and Makart became the mediator between various levels of society.

Hans Makart became the acknowledged leader of the artistic life of Vienna, which in the 1870s passed through a period of feverish activity. He was also an interior designer, costume designer, furniture designer, and decorator, in addition to being a painter.

In 1879, Hans Makart designed a pageant organized to celebrate the 25^th wedding anniversary of the Austrian Imperial couple. He single-handed designed, the costumes, scenic setting, and triumphal carriages. This became known as the "Makart Parade", and gave the people of Vienna a chance to dress up in historical costumes and be transported back into the past for a few hours. His festivals became an institution in Vienna that lasted up until the 1960s. The "Makartstil", which determined the culture of an entire era in Vienna, was an aestheticism the likes of which hadn't been seen before him and has not been repeated right up 'til today.

Aside from his clear influence on the Academic art and high culture of Vienna at the time, Hans Makart also influenced a wide range of painters and decorators who followed him, the most notable being Gustav Klimt, who idolized him.

Art Movement: Academic Art.
Artists Influencing Hans Makart: Karl Theodor von Piloty, Johann Fischbach.
He Traveled To Italy, Germany, France, England.
Painters Hans Makart Influenced: Gustav Klimt.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.