Alois Delug (25 May 1859 – 17 September 1930) was an Austrian painter and a professor at the

Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna The Academy of Fine Arts Vienna () is a public art school in Vienna, Austria. Founded in 1688 as a private academy, it is now a public university. The academy is also known for twice rejecting admission to a young Adolf Hitler in 1907 and 1908. ...

. He may be remembered best for his supposed role in rejecting

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's application to join the academy.

Life

After attending the '' Gymnasium'' in Bozen, Delug started painting, with encouragement from the painter Heinrich Schöpfer. He moved to

Innsbruck Innsbruck (; ) is the capital of Tyrol (federal state), Tyrol and the List of cities and towns in Austria, fifth-largest city in Austria. On the Inn (river), River Inn, at its junction with the Wipptal, Wipp Valley, which provides access to the ...

and began studying history at the

University of Innsbruck The University of Innsbruck (; ) is a public research university in Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian federal state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol, founded on October 15, 1669. It is the largest education facility in the Austrian States of Austria, ...

, staying until 1880, when he moved to Vienna and enrolled at the academy, studying under the painter Leopold Carl Müller. In 1885, he began a three-year period of travelling, visiting England, Italy, France, Germany and Holland, then settled in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1888 and accepted orders for historical and religious paintings. In 1896, he moved back to Vienna, and became a founding member of the

Vienna Secession The Vienna Secession (; also known as the Union of Austrian Artists or ) is an art movement, closely related to Art Nouveau, that was formed in 1897 by a group of Austrian painters, graphic artists, sculptors and architects, including Josef Ho ...

, though he resigned from it in 1898. Delug joined the academy as a professor in 1898, and became the director of the ''Allgemeine Malerschule'' (General School of Painting). His students there included

Karl Sterrer Karl Sterrer (4 December 188510 June 1972) was an Austrian painter and engraver. Biography Karl Sterrer was the son of the sculptor Carl Sterrer. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna under Alois Delug and Christian Griepenkerl. Equal ...

, Anton Velim,

Hans Fronius Hans Fronius (12 September 1903 - 21 March 1988) was an Austrians, Austrian Painting, painter and illustration, illustrator. He was born in Sarajevo, which was then a territory of Austria-Hungary (now Bosnia and Hercegovina). His father was descen ...

, Anton Kolig, Hubert Lanzinger, Albert Stolz, Hans Popp, Oddone Tomasi (the author of Delug's portrait above) and Franz Gruss. He visited America in 1923–24, and retired from teaching in 1928. According to Josef Greiner, Delug denied

a place at the academy because of inadequate drawing ability. However, according to

Brigitte Hamann Brigitte Hamann (; 26 July 1940 – 4 October 2016) was a German-Austrian author and historian based in Vienna. Biography Born in Essen, Germany, Hamann studied history in Münster and Vienna. She worked as a journalist in Essen for some time. ...

, Delug was perennially at odds with the rest of the faculty, who did not share his

Modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

and Secessionist tastes, and in 1907–08, he was not in Vienna after another falling-out. Therefore, the admission decision largely fell to the other director of the painting school,

Christian Griepenkerl Christian Griepenkerl (17 March 1839 – 22 March 1916) was a German painter and professor, best known for rejecting Adolf Hitler's application to train at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Biography Griepenkerl was born to one of Oldenburg (cit ...

. Other historians have also discounted Greiner as a fraud. He was buried in Grinzinger Cemetery in a ''gewidmet Grab'' (honoured grave; group 19, number 290). In 1931, a road in

Döbling Döbling () is the 19th Districts of Vienna, district in the city of Vienna, Austria (). It is located in the north of Vienna, north of the districts Alsergrund and Währing. Döbling has some heavily populated urban areas with many residential bui ...

was named the ''Delugstraße'' (Delug Street) in his honour. His painting ''The Markl Family'' (1907) was shown as part of '' Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900'', an exhibition at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of more than 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current di ...

, London, from October 2013 to January 2014.

Selected works

*''The Refugees'' (1886) *''The Holy Women at the Crossroads'' *''Alaric's funeral in Busento'' (1890) *''The Norns'' (1894) *Three-piece votive picture for the Schorlemer family chapel (1898) *''Pieta'' for the chapel of

Emperor Maximilian I Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death in 1519. He was never crowned by the Pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed hi ...

Santiago de Querétaro Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, ...

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Delug, Alois Academy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni University of Innsbruck alumni Academic staff of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna Artists from Bolzano Members of the Vienna Secession 1859 births 1930 deaths 19th-century Austrian painters Austrian male painters 20th-century Austrian painters Art Nouveau painters 19th-century Austrian male artists 20th-century Austrian male artists Painters from Austria-Hungary