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Rudolf Swoboda (1859–1914) was a 19th-century
He studied under his father, Eduard Swoboda, and his uncle Leopold Carl Müller, and traveled with him to
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n Orientalist painter. He was sometimes known as The Younger, to distinguish him from his uncle Rudolf, who was also an artist.
Biography
He studied under his father, Eduard Swoboda, and his uncle Leopold Carl Müller, and traveled with him to Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
in 1880. His sister was the portrait painter Josefine Swoboda
Josefine Swoboda (29 January 1861 in Vienna – 27 October 1924 in Vienna) was an Austrian portrait painter. She was one of the most active Vienna portraitists.
Life
Josefine Swoboda came from a Vienna family of artists, she was the daughter o ...
, also well known for her portraits of the British royal family
The British royal family comprises Charles III and other members of his family. There is no strict legal or formal definition of who is or is not a member, although the Royal Household has issued different lists outlining who is considere ...
.
In 1886, Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...
commissioned him to paint several of a group of Indian artisans who had been brought to Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...
as part of the Golden Jubilee
A golden jubilee marks a 50th anniversary. It variously is applied to people, events, and nations.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, golden jubilee refers the 50th anniversary year of the separation from Pakistan and is called in Bengali language, ...
preparations. Victoria liked the resulting paintings so much that she paid his way to India to paint more of her Indian subjects.
He depicted many of the ordinary people of India in groups of paintings that were mostly small (no more than eight inches high).
While in India, he stayed, part of the time, with John Lockwood Kipling
John Lockwood Kipling (6 July 1837 – 26 January 1911) was an English art teacher, illustrator and museum curator who spent most of his career in India. He was the father of the author Rudyard Kipling.
Life and career
Lockwood Kipling was b ...
, and met his son Rudyard Kipling
Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English journalist, novelist, poet, and short-story writer. He was born in British Raj, British India, which inspired much ...
. The younger Kipling was unimpressed with Swoboda, writing to a friend about two "Austrian maniacs" who thought they were "almighty" artists aiming to "embrace the whole blazing East".
Upon his return from India, he also painted (in 1888 and 1889) two portraits of Abdul Karim (the Munshi)
Mohammed Abdul Karim (1863 — 20 April 1909), also known as "the Munshi", was an Indian attendant of Queen Victoria. He served her during the final fourteen years of her reign, gaining her maternal affection over that time.
Karim was born th ...
, Victoria's favorite Indian servant.
Most of his Indian paintings hang at Osborne House
Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house in the style ...
, once Victoria's residence on the Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...
.
The record price paid for a Swoboda painting was for ''The Carpet Menders'', which sold in 2008 for US$2.6 million at Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...
.
See also
*List of Orientalist artists
This is an incomplete list of artists who have produced works on Orientalism#Orientalist art, Orientalist subjects, drawn from the Islamic world or other parts of Asia. Many artists listed on this page worked in many genres, and Orientalist subj ...
Sources
* * Herbert Zemen (Ed.): ''Der Orientmaler Rudolf Swoboda. 1859–1914. Leben und Werk.'' Privately published, Zemen, Vienna 2004. *External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Swoboda, Rudolf 1859 births 1914 deaths 19th-century Austrian painters 19th-century Austrian male artists 20th-century Austrian painters Painters from Vienna Austrian people of Czech descent Austrian male painters Austrian orientalists Austrian Orientalist painters 20th-century Austrian male artists Painters from Austria-Hungary