Schindler, Emil Jakob

PAINTER (AUSTRIA)
BORN 27 Apr 1842, Wien: Obere Donaustraße 75 - DIED 9 Aug 1892, Westerland, Sylt
CAUSE OF DEATH appendicitis
GRAVE LOCATION Wien: Zentralfriedhof, Simmeringer Hauptstraße 234, Simmering (Gruppe 14 A, Nummer 51)

E.J. Schindler was the son of the factory owner Jakob Schindler (1814-1846). He was supposed to pursue a military career, but he chose the arts instead. In 1860 he entered the Academy in Vienna where he studied under Albert Zimmermann. He befriended the famous painter Hans Makart, in whose house he was allowed to live for a while. In 1873 he travelled to Venice, in 1874 to Dalmatia and in 1875 to the Netherlands.

In 1879 he married the singer Anna Sofie Bergen (1857-1939), who was already three months pregnant at the time. They were financially pressed and had to share a house with the painter Julius Victor Berger. Their daughter was born and she would be known in later years as Alma Mahler. When Schindler was away due to illness Anna started an affair with Berger and he's probably the father of her second child, Margarethe Julie (1880-1942).

In 1881 Schindler won the important Reichel-Künstlerpreis and this enabled them to move to a larger house. His work started to sell better now. In 1885 he spent the sommer in Plankenberg Castle near Neulengbach and here an art colony was founded where he taught Marie Egner and others.

In 1887 crown prince Rudolph asked him to travel to Dalmatia and Greece to make paintings for a series about the empire. This added to his fame and in the same year he became a honorary memeber of the Academy in Vienna.

His wife had ended the affair with Berger, but started a new one with his student Carl Moll. Schindler suddenly died at the height of his fame in 1892, only 50 years old, after doctors failed to diagnose that he suffered from appendicits. He was buried at the Ober St. Veit cemetery, but in later years his remains were transferred to the Zentralfriedhof. Anna Sofie married Moll in 1895, a marriage that was never accepted by Alma.

Family
• Daughter: Mahler, Alma
• Wife: Bergen, Anna Sofie (1879-1892, WienL Paulanerkirche)

Related persons
• was teacher of Blau, Tina
• was influenced by Daubigny, Charles-François
• was a friend of Makart, Hans
• was teacher of Moll, Carl
• worked for Rudolf von Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary
• was teacher of Wisinger-Florian, Olga

Images

The grave of Emil Jakob Schindler at the Zentralfriedhof, Vienna.
Picture by Androom (20 Sep 2004)

 

The statue of E.J. Schindler at the Stadtpark, Vienna.
Picture by Androom (18 Aug 2007)

 

Sources
Winkler Prins Encyclopedie (editie 1909), 1909
Emil Jakob Schindler – Wikipedia


Schinkel, Karl Friedrich

Published: 15 Sep 2007
Last update: 31 Dec 2022