Arthur Roessler, also spelled Rössler, (20 February 1877 – 20 July 1950) was an Austrian art critic, art historian and essayist.

Biography

Roessler was born in to the family of a chemist and engineer. He studied philosophy, literature and art history at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

under

Franz Wickhoff Franz Wickhoff (7 May 1853 – 6 April 1909) was an Austrian art historian, and is considered a member of the Vienna School of Art History. Early life Franz Wickhoff was born on 7 May 1853 in Steyr. He studied at the University of Vienna under ...

, but did not defend his doctoral thesis. He travelled around Europe and settled in Munich, where he worked as a journalist for the ''Münchner Zeitung.'' Egon Schiele 060

Roessler's first major essay, Die Stimmung der Gotik, was published in 1903. Two years later, he published a new essay, about the Dachau artists' colony (Künstlergruppe Neu-Dachau) and Adolf Hölzel, a pioneer of modernism. Thanks to the latter, he settled in Vienna and took over the management of the Miethke gallery. He continued to promote many young modernist artists through numerous collaborations with art magazines. His friendship with

Victor Adler __NOTOC__ Victor Adler (24 June 1852 – 11 November 1918) was an Austrian politician, a leader of the labour movement and founder of the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP). Life Adler was born on 24 June 1852, in Prague, the son of a Jewi ...

led him to write for the social-democratic newspaper '' Arbeiter-Zeitung'', in whose columns he was the first to recognise and defend

Egon Schiele Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele (; 12 June 1890 – 31 October 1918) was an Austrian Expressionist painters, painter. His work is noted for its intensity and its raw sexuality, and for the many self-portraits the artist produced, including nude sel ...

which led the two men to become close friends. Schiele left several portraits of Roessler. Between the two wars, Roessler became vice-president of the

Wiener Werkstätte The Wiener Werkstätte ("Vienna Workshop"), established in 1903 by the graphic designer and painter Koloman Moser, the architect Josef Hoffmann and the patron Fritz Waerndorfer, was a productive association in Vienna, Austria that brought to ...

, and director of the Österreichische Werkbund (ÖWB). In 1937, he was awarded the title of professor by government of Austria. After Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, Roessler a supporter of Austrian modernism and social democracy, came under scrutiny from the new regime and was accused of being a "

Mischling (; ; ) was a pejorative legal term which was used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed " Aryan" and "non-Aryan", such as Jewish, ancestry as they were classified by the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general ...

" under the Nazi racial laws which forbade him to work. Roessler and his wife Ida remained in Vienna during the Second World War and after the war ended he continued his work as a freelance writer and critic. Arthur Roessler died on July 20, 1955, in Vienna; his grave is in the

Vienna Central Cemetery The Vienna Central Cemetery () is one of the largest Cemetery, cemeteries in the world by number of interred, and is the most well-known among Vienna's nearly 50 cemeteries. The cemetery's name is descriptive of its significance as Vienna's big ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Roessler, Arthur 1877 births 1955 deaths Austrian art critics Austrian art historians Austrian art collectors Austrian essayists 20th-century Austrian male writers University of Vienna alumni Burials at the Vienna Central Cemetery