Hans Figura, European Village, Circa 1950

Description

Artist: Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978)
Title: European Village
Year: Circa 1950
Medium: Color etching with aquatint
Edition: Unknown
Paper: Printed … more Artist: Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978)
Title: European Village
Year: Circa 1950
Medium: Color etching with aquatint
Edition: Unknown
Paper: Printed on silk
Plate mark size: 10.25 x 12.75 inches, framed size 19.25 x 21.25 inches
Signature: Hand signed in pencil by the artist
Condition: Very good
Frame: Framed in a custom wooden beige and gold frame

About the artist.

Hans Figura (Austrian, 1898-1978) was a noted painter and etcher, who was well known for his aquatint etchings on paper or satin of European and American landscape and cityscape scenes, as well as paintings of landscape and cityscape scenes, Tyrolean Alp scenes of villages and chalets, street scenes, harbor and marine scenes.
Hans Figura was born January 22, 1898, in the small town of Nagy-Kikinda near the Austro-Hungarian border, to Austrian parents. His father was a railway official and he spent his childhood in various small villages along the railway line between Vienna and Hungary. He graduated from the highschool in Vienna and also studied at the Higher Graphical Federal Education and Research Institute, a vocational school there (Höhere Graphische Bundes-Lehr und Versuchsanstalt)
As a young man, he served as an officer in the Austrian Army during WWI from 1916-18 on the Russian and Italian fronts. After the war he attended medical school at the University of Vienna for several years beginning in 1918, and seven semesters later, he passed his first state exam, but eventually decided that he preferred the arts to medicine. He also studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien) and by 1922 he had devoted himself to painting and etching, while also working in other artistic printing mediums, batik, illustration, bookbinding and working with leather.
From 1923-28, Figura made numerous art study trips throughout Europe including; Germany, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, England, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. His first major success came in 1924, when he won acclaim for his etchings exhibited in Italy and the United States. In 1929, he visited the United States and in 1930, he traveled back to France, Holland and also Switzerland. During this time, Figura maintained studios in both New York City and Vienna, Austria. Throughout the course of his career, he exhibited his paintings and prints in many of the large cities throughout Europe and the United States and many of his etchings and paintings were acquired by museums and galleries, including The Kulturamt, Vienna, Austria; the Landesmuseum of Lower Austria; as well as The Society of Art Lovers, Berlin and Munich.

Select Exhibitions:
1924- Exhibitions in Italy and the United States.
Circa Mid 1920's-1939- All the exhibitions at the Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria.
1926- "Secession", Vienna, Austria.
1927- Bromhead Art Gallery, London, England.
1930- "Alpine Kunst-Ausstellung", Budpest, Hungary.
1939- "Mountains and Peoples of Austria", Vienna, Austria.
1977- Villach, Austrian.
He eventually spent the rest of his life in Vienna, Austria and he died on February 17, 1978. less