St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna c1920
Conté
38 x 48 cm
Signed
Provenance: Estate of the artist; Barkes & Barkes, London; Bridget McDonnell Gallery until 1997; Zoe and Joe Sullivan Collection
Exhibited: Christmas Exhibition, 1997, Bridget McDonnell Gallery, Carlton
Carl Felkel was born in Vienna in 1896 and died in London in 1978. Felkel came from a family of professional artists and musicians.
After leaving school, he briefly studied in Munich at the studio of Professor Thor, before joining the Austrian Army for the duration of the 1914-18 War.
Felkel then resumed his studies under Rudolf Backer at the State Academy of Arts, Vienna.
Always a star pupil, he eventually graduated in 1925 with the Rome Prize and what he described in his autobiographical notes as the great State Prize. Further extensive studies in Rome, Paris and Switzerland followed. His first year in Paris was funded by a brief career as a “barytone” at the Theatre Montparnasse. His numerous commissions for portraits and landscapes from patrons in Rome and Vienna made him a successful artist by his early thirties. He seems to have been very much at home as the artist – boulevardier, painting portraits of the aristocracy in the capital cities of Europe.
Felkel and his Viennese wife settled in London in 1936. He had one-man shows at the Goupil Gallery in 1938 and 1940. The 1939-45 War was taken up by voluntary work. He became a naturalised British subject in 1947. He had established a studio in Holland Park, where he resumed his career painting portraits and landscapes. He continued to travel extensively. He held one-man exhibitions at the Batsford Gallery (1948); the Cooling Gallery (1950); the Shipley Art Gallery (1952); Leighton House, close to his studio in Kensington (1966) and the Mall Galleries (1976).
Carl Felkel was elected to membership of the Society of Graphic Artists and the National Society of Painters, Sculptors and Printmakers. He exhibited regularly at their annual shows. He also had portraits hung at the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy.
In 1970 he had a retrospective exhibition in his home town – at the Austrian Culture Centre in Vienna.
Carl Felkel is represented in many museums, notably the Albertina – the Austrian National Gallery.
Item #7167
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