LOSTERREICH - images of past Vienna

I am currently living in Vienna and working on a series of paintings which depict people, mostly tragic figures, who have some connection with 

that city.

Sigmund Freud (acrylic on canvas, 100 x 50 cm)

Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, moved to Vienna with his family when he was young and in 1873 began to study at the University of Vienna.  After graduating  he worked at the Vienna General hospital. In 1897, he began an intensive analysis of himself which lead to his major work 'The Interpretation of Dreams’ being  published in 1897, in which Freud analysed dreams in terms of unconscious desires and experiences.   In 1938, shortly after the Nazis annexed Austria, and started to burn his books,  Freud left Vienna for London with his wife and daughter Anna. 

Sissy (acrylic on canvas, 100 x 50 cm)

Empress Elisabeth was a reluctant member of the Habsburg royalty.  She was passionately loved by her husband Franz Joseph but did not return his feelings fully and felt stifled by court etiquette.  After the suicide of her only son Rudolph in 1889 (within one year she had lost her mother, father sister and son) she sank into depression and begin to spend less and less time in Vienna with her husband.  She undertook a series of travels throughout Europe.  On the last, a visit to Geneva, she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist who struck her with a sharpened file.

The Mayerling (acrylic on canvas, 100 x 50 cm)

Son of Empress Elisabeth, Crown Prince Rudolph clash with his deeply conservative father and shared his mother's more liberal views although their relationship was often strained.  After his marriage to Princess Stefanie of Belgium began to falter to began to seek solace in drink and the companionship of other females. He started seeing the 17 year old Baroness Marie Vetsera and was ordered to end the affair by his father.  Instead, as part of a suicide pact, he first shot his mistress in the head and then himself at the Mayerling hunting lodge which he had purchased in 1887 .

Sindelaar (acrylic on canvas, 100 x 50 cm)

Of Czech descent, Matthias Sindelar was born in Moravia, then part of the Austrian Empire.  His family moved to Favoriten, Vienna, in 1905 where as a young boy he played football in the streets.  He joined FAK Austria Wien in 1924. Known as "Der Papierene" because of his slight build, he was renowned  for his fantastic dribbling ability and creativity.  He made 43 appearances in the Austrian "Wunderteam." Before a game against a German side which was meant to celebrate the Nazi Anschluss, Sindelar insisted his side play in red and white, the colours of the national flag, and then he went on to score a goal in a 2-0 win in a match the Austrians were supposed to lose.  He celebrated wildly in front of Nazi dignitaries. Later he refused to play for the German/Austrian side and was found dead in his apartment alongside his girlfriend in January 1939.  Carbon monoxide poisoning was cited as the cause of the death of a man who was under surveillance of the notorious Gestapo.https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/my-drive