Portraits by Hermann Torggler

 

Erinnerung.
~
Remembrance.

This picture postcard of a young woman was sent to someone in Wien, Austria on 2 January 1900. Her gaze is one of reflection, perhaps. The artist is Hermann Torggler (1878 - 1939), an Austrian artist whose work I collect. Torggler produced a large number of etchings for postcards at the turn of the 19th century just when picture postcards were becoming the new social media in Austria and Germany. 

* * *

Am Sprudel.
~
At the spa.

This etching by Torggler shows a young woman enjoying a glass of fizzy water at a spa. Is someone approaching her table? It was posted on 5 October 1899 from Salzburg, Austria to Ried im Innkreis, a town in the Austrian state of Upper Austria, approximately 70 km (43 miles) west of Linz and 60 km (37 miles) north of Salzburg. 

* * *

Glück und Gruss
~
Good luck and greetings

In this postcard another young woman stands at a garden gate, picking or arranging flowers. She seems to see something or, more likely, someone in the distance beyond the boundary of the paper. The card was sent from Wien on 11 January 1902.

* * *

Ein Akkord
~
A chord

Here a woman sits in front of a piano as her right hand plays a chord on the keyboard. Her left hand awaits to begin the accompaniment. The postmark is unclear but the stamp is from Bayern~Bavaria and likely dates from 1900-1904.  

* * *

Adagio
~
Very slow

This woman is also seated but in a sturdy adult-size swing. I think she's asking for a push. Her light-colored hat and dress suggest springtime, and, in fact, the postmark is dated 14 May 1903 from Freising, a university town in Bavaria, Germany.

* * *

Hip, hip, hurrah!
~
Hip, hip, hurrah!

1900

My final portrait by Hermann Torggler is of a young woman wearing a loose gypsy style dress as she delivers a large steaming tureen, no doubt a delicacy for a new year's feast. She smiles as her eyes look into ours. It's an image that seems fitting now at the start of another new year, a century and a quarter later. Let's all give a cheer for peace, love, and happiness. The world needs all it can get.

For the new year
here is a cover of John Lennon's song Imagine
beautifully sung and played by Connie Talbot.

Wikipedia provides an unexpected page devoted to the phrase "Hip, hip, hurrah!". This cheer of congratulations is usually expressed by English-speaking people, but for some reason the definition is illustrated with a painting made by a Danish artist. 

Hip, Hip, Hurrah!
by Peder Severin Krøyer (1888)
Source: Wikipedia

This painting is entitled "Hip, Hip, Hurrah!" and was created by Peder Severin Krøyer (1851 – 1909). It depicts members of the Skagen Painters, a group of Danish, Norwegian and Swedish artists in the 1880s and early 1890s who worked in the fishing village of Skagen, situated at the northernmost part of Denmark. "Hip, Hip, Hurrah!" follows a style popular with these Scandinavian painters who were influenced by the French Impressionists and Naturalists of this era. 

The painting was begun in 1884 after a garden party for one of the artists. Krøyer used photos of the occasion after he was prevented from returning to the house to paint the garden in the open air. It took him four years to complete and was first displayed in 1888. Today it hangs in the Gothenburg Museum of Art. In 2012 it was recreated full-size in Lego blocks for a special exhibit of Danish art. 

Peder Severin Krøyer's painting Hip, Hip, Hurrah!
recreated as a Lego mosaic
at the IMAGINATION Danish festival
at St Katharine Docks, in August 2012.
Author: Cmglee
Source: Wikimedia

This is my contribution to Sepia Saturday

where vintage photos are always free.