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Emil Jakob Schindler

Vienna, 1842 - 1892, Westerland auf Sylt, Germany

BiographySchindler was the leading force behind the development of "Stimmungsimpressionismus," or "mood Impressionism," the Austrian school of naturalistic landscape. Of most significance was his role as a teacher and charismatic spokesman for a group of artists who collaborated with him in the creation of a landscape style which led Viennese painters out of their Biedermeier traditionalism. Schindler was part of Albert Zimmerman's class at the academy from 1860 to 1869; here he met fellow students Eugen Jettel, Rudolf Ribarz and Robert Russ, who became his devoted colleagues and followers in later years. His first great inspiration was Dutch painting of the seventeenth century; in many ways, Schindler's continued preference for subdued browns, greens, and greys reflects this influence. But his discovery of the work of the French landscapists Rousseau, Daubigny, and Corot was his greatest revelation. Indeed, Schindler's work is more reminiscent of Corot than of the later Impressionists to whom he is always compared. As the name "mood painting" implies, Schindler was most specifically concerned with creating in his landscapes an atmosphere, a soft, gentle, slightly melancholic feeling produced through delicate gradations of color. Rather than seeing his art as incomplete Impressionism, it is more accurate to consider it as the culmination of an Austrian naturalism which had been developing throughout the nineteenth century. As an artistic personality, Schindler had a compelling presence; he created a devoted circle of artists around him, some of whom eventually rebelled against his dogmatic control but none of whom entirely rejected his lessons in color and atmospheric effects.Erika Esau, Pre-Modern Art of Vienna 1848-1898, Edith C. Blum Instutute of Bard College, 1987.

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