Felix Albrecht Harta
1884, Budapest, Hungary – 1967, Salzburg, Austria
Felix Albrecht Harta was an Austrian modernist painter and graphic designer. After studying architecture, he finished his artistic education in Dachau, Munich and Paris. He lived and worked in Vienna, Salzburg and Cambridge. In Salzburg in 1919, he co-founded the artists’ association Der Wassermann (which translates as ‘the Aquarius’), of which he served as president. As a friend of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, Harta developed his own distinctive visual language between Expressionism and New Objectivity. In 1939, he emigrated to England but returned to Salzburg in 1950. Today, Harta is regarded as one of the most important protagonists of Austrian modernism.
In the Renner-Lanjus Collection
For Josef Renner, the current custodian of the collection, the painting Der Rainberg und Riedenburg is the most emotionally significant work in the collection. It used to hang in his grandparents’ billiard room, and even as a child it held a great fascination for him. Renner particularly appreciates the liveliness and dynamism of the picture, the interplay of clarity and movement.
Felix Albrecht Harta, Der Rainberg und Riedenburg, 1918, oil on canvas.
Photo © kunst.dokumentation.com / Manuel Carreón López