Josef Theodor Moroder, also known as the Lusenberger, (28 May 1846 in

Urtijëi Urtijëi (; german: St. Ulrich in Gröden ; it, Ortisei ) is a town of 4,637 inhabitants in South Tyrol in northern Italy. It occupies the Val Gardena within the Dolomites, a mountain chain that is part of the Alps. Geography Urtijëi borders th ...

– 16 February 1939 in Urtijëi) was a painter and sculptor, the most prominent artist of the Moroder family from the Grödenthal in South Tyrol (now the

Val Gardena Val Gardena (; german: Gröden ; lld, Gherdëina ) is a valley in Northern Italy, in the Dolomites of South Tyrol. It is best known as a tourist skiing, rock climbing, and woodcarving area. Geography The valley's main river is the Derjon, a ...

in Italy).

Biography

Josef, the fourth of eight children, lost his father when he was eight years old. He was apprenticed in a woodcarving studio under Franz Prinoth, an academic sculptor educated in the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Academy, and in his twenties, Josef started his own studio. Examples of his early activity as a sculptor are the statues of the Maria Addolorata and of the Virgin Mary in the

Parish Church of Urtijëi A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or m ...

. His first wife, Annamaria Sanoner died after she gave birth to their fourth child in 1874. He married Felizitas Unterplatzer who gave birth to eleven other children. She also took care of his farm and was active as an antiquarian. Thirty years old, with the support of Felizitas, he visited the Academy of Munich (1876–1880) to learn the art of painting after he was impressed in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

by the

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attache ...

of Franz von Defregger, ''The Dance in the Mountains''. His teachers in Munich were

Joseph Knabl Joseph Knabl (17 July 1819 – 3 November 1881) was an Austrian sculptor who specialized in religious statuary. Early years and studies Knabl was born at Fliess, Tyrol, to a peasant family. He tended cattle as a boy, but showed an early aptitu ...

, Ludwig von Löfftz and Feodor Dietz. From 1880 to 1884 he was a pupil of Defregger; becoming close friends, they took many painting trips through the villages of the Trentino. In Munich Josef Moroder was influenced by the genre and historical painting of Defregger and the realistic-idealistic painting movement of

Wilhelm Leibl Wilhelm Maria Hubertus Leibl (October 23, 1844 – December 4, 1900) was a German realist painter of portraits and scenes of peasant life. Biography Leibl was born in Cologne, where his father was the director of the Cathedral choir. He was a ...

. From his numerous sketch books we can see how precisely he observed nature, landscape and specially the Tyrolean and

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...

lifestyle in

. Many of his paintings, watercolours and sketches of farmhouses, huts, people and portraits are a testimony of a lost alpine world which once was the 19th-century Tyrol. The populist-romantic novelist Maria Veronika Rubatscher was well acquainted with the artist and wrote his biography in 1930, which became a popular novel. One of his pupils was Ludwig Moroder-Lenert. Most of Josef's children,

Johann Baptist Johann, typically a male given name, is the German form of ''Iohannes'', which is the Latin form of the Greek name ''Iōánnēs'' (), itself derived from Hebrew name ''Yochanan'' () in turn from its extended form (), meaning "Yahweh is Gracious" ...

, Friedrich (Rico), Alfons, Josef,

Otto Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', '' Odo'', '' Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorde ...

, Hermann, became valid sculptors. His son Alfons (1882–1960) settled in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

where he set up a business to sell altars for churches and statues of saints partially produced by him or imported from his native village, Urtijëi.

Exhibitions

* A major exhibition was held in Innsbruck in 1973. * Josef Moroder's watercolours were shown in

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...

Italy in 1985. * In 2009 two exhibitions in

and

with respectively 120 and 100 works. * The

Museum of Val Gardena A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

in Urtijëi exhibits more than 30 of his oil paintings and watercolours.Museum of Val Gardena
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Gallery

Image:Lusenberg-Virgin.jpg, Virgin Mary in the parish church of Urtijëi by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg. Image:Lusenberg-wise-men.jpg, Adoration of the Magi in the parish church of Urtijëi by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg. Image:Lusenberg-Immaculata-1876.jpg, Maria Immaculata, painting after Murillo, in the S. Antony church, by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg, 1876. Image:Lusenberg-Michael-1879.jpg, Archangel Michael in the S. Antony church by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg, 1876. Image:Holzhacker Josef Moroder Lusenberg.jpg, Lumberjack carved in Swiss pine by Josef Moroder-Lusenberg. Image:Lusenberger-Denkmal.jpg, Monument to the artist by his son Johann Baptist Moroder, 1896. Image:Grabstein Josef Moroder Lusenberg.jpg, Family grave of the artist in Urtijëi by the son

1928.

References

Bibliography (in German)

* Maria Veronika Rubatscher. ''Der Lusenberger. Der Roman eines Künstlerlebens.'' München: Verlag Josef Kösel & Friedrich Pustet, 1930 (Reprint Athesia Bozen, 1980 or ). * Komitee für die Drucklegung des Moroder-Stammbuches. ''Die Moroder, ein altladinisches Geschlecht aus Gröden-Dolomiten. Vom 14. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert. Ursprung - Geschichte - Biographien - Anhang. Beitrag zur tirolischen Familienforschung'' - Edited by the Moroder Book committee, Urtijëi 1980. Pages 188-204. (Book mainly in German, with some minor parts in English, Italian, Spanish and Ladin). British Library LF.31.a.1348. * Sybille-Karin Moser. Tiroler Bilder und Ihre Darstellung. Malerei von 1830 bis 1900. S. 519. Aus: Kunst in Tirol. Herausgeber: Paul Naredi-Rainer, Lukas Madersbacher.Verlagsanstalt Tyrolia Innsbruck und Verlagsanstalt Athesia Bozen 2007. - .

External links

Exhibitions on Josef Moroder 2009

Drawings from Josef Moroder's sketchbooks
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moroder-Lusenberg, Josef 1846 births 1939 deaths People from Urtijëi Ladin people Moroder family Academy of Fine Arts, Munich alumni 19th-century Austrian painters 19th-century Austrian male artists Austrian male painters Austrian sculptors Austrian male sculptors 20th-century Austrian painters 20th-century Austrian sculptors Italian people of Austrian descent Italian male painters 20th-century Italian male artists 20th-century Italian painters 20th-century Italian sculptors Italian male sculptors 20th-century Austrian male artists