Databáze uměleckých výstav v českých zemích 1820 – 1950

From 1903, Mährischer Kunstverein had its own exhibition space in the Gerstbauer Foundation House  (Gerstbauersches Stiftungshaus). For this reason, it gradually steered its activity away from the traditional annual exhibition and toward more narrowly focused, thematic shows. The new exhibition program included monographic presentations of works by prominent contemporary Moravian artists, many of whom lived in Vienna. But even in the Austrian capital, the solo exhibition was a new and quite uncommon way of presenting artworks to the public. The Brno shows therefore offered a unique opportunity for successful Viennese Moravians to show their work in extensive retrospectives. In October 1905, Mährischer Kunstverein organized a retrospective of Hans Temple (1857–1931), in his time one of the most successful Moravian painters in Vienna. Temple received a number of art prizes at exhibitions in Vienna, Paris, and various German cities, and he was also a recipient of state honours. Between  1913 and 1918, he was the president of the Moravian art association Mährischer Künstlerbund. In the Central-European context, Temple was important for local fine arts because he was one of the first pure naturalists in the region, bringing French-style naturalism to Vienna. His popularity peaked in the 1890s when he was making large-format paintings depicting genre scenes from artists' studios in Vienna.

Temple's solo exhibition in Brno was conceived as a representative selection from his oeuvre, showcasing the most important older paintings that the Kunstverein was able to borrow, complemented with more recent paintings of smaller and medium formats. The show contained 36 paintings in total, including six examples of the famous studio scenes. The painting Sculptor Prof. Rudolf Weyr in His Studio, had previously been exhibited in Munich, Berlin and Antwerp and in 1896, it received the Imperial Award at the Vienna Künstlerhaus exhibition, the highest honour a Viennese artist could achieve at the time. The painting William Unger, also exhibited in Brno, received a silver medal at the 1891 Künstlerhaus exhibition and was subsequently showcased in Berlin, Budapest, Munich, Chicago and Brussels. The paintings Festive Day in Prof. Zumbusch's Studio received the Second Class Medal in Munich in 1897 and was also exhibited in Vienna and Berlin. Temple's Prof. Victor Tilgner in His Studio received the second highest award at the Vienna Künstlerhaus exhibition and the Archduke Carl Ludwig Medal, and was later exhibited in Munich and at the International Art Exhibition in Berlin where it received the Small Golden Medal (here, Temple was awarded either for this painting or for the Sculptor Prof. Rudolf Weyr in His Studio), and finally in Dresden, where it won the Golden Medal. This collection was complete with the paintings Johannes Benk and Visit in the Studio of the Medal Maker Anton Scharff. The depictions of the Tilgner and Scharff studios were borrowed from the city of Vienna, while the Unger and Benk studio scenes came from the local private collections. Five of these studio scenes, including the Rudolf Weyr painting are today in the collections of Wien Museum.

In Brno, the painting Festive Day in Prof. Zumbusch's Studio was on sale for the steep price of 12,000 Crowns. This amount corresponded to roughly a tenth of the Mährischer Kunstverein's assets, or a twentieth of the amount for which the Mährischer Kunstverein built the Künstlerhaus in Brno a few years later. For Moravian patriots, the idea of acquiring a key painting by a prominent Moravian artist was extraordinarily appealing but the Moravian provincial institutions lacked adequate funds for the purchase. The problem was solved when Johann II of Liechtenstein, the wealthiest Moravian aristocrat, purchased the painting and gave it to the Moravian Provincial Museum's Picture Gallery whose successor, the Moravian Gallery, still has it in its collections.

Robert Janás

Further reading

Robert Janás, Hans Temple ( 1857–1931 ). Moravský naturalistický malíř, PhD thesis,  FF MU Brno, 1997

Robert Janás, Hans Temple. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschmährischen Malerei des 19. Jahrhunderts, Opuscula historiae artium, F 43, Brno 1999, pp. 37–47

Robert Janás, Výstavy spolku Mährischer Kunstverein v letech 1882–1918, in: Jana Vránová – Lubomír Slavíček (edd.), 90 let Domu umění města Brna. Historie jednoho domu. Architektura, historie, výstavy, kulturní činnost 1910–2000, Brno 2000, pp. 21–35

Robert Janás, Mährischer Kunstverein v letech 1882–1918. Dějiny a výstavní činnost spolku, dissertation, FF MU Brno 2001, pp. 140–150

Robert Janás, Hans Temple – Slavnostní den u profesora Zumbusche. Brno v minulosti a dnes XXVII, Brno 2014, pp. 131–153

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 452, Abendblatt, 28. 9., p. 4

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 464, Abendblatt, 5. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 227, 5. 10., pp. 2–3

Anonymous author, (Die Temple-Ausstellung des Mährischen Kunstvereines), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 229, 7. 10., p. 3

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 470, Morgenblatt, 8. 10., sp. 4

Anonymous author, (Die Temple-Ausstellung des Mährischen Kunstvereines), Brünner Morgenpost, Beilage zur Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 230, 8. 10., p. 5

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 470, 9. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Temple-Ausstellung), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 230, 9. 10., p. 3

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 481, Morgenblatt, 15. 10., p. 2

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 492, Abendblatt, 21. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung des Mährischen Kunstvereines), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 241, 21. 10., p. 3

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung des Mährischen Kunstvereines), Brünner Morgenpost, Beilage zur Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 242, 22. 10., p. 5

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 494, Abendblatt, 23. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung des Mährischen Kunstvereines), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 242, 23. 10., p. 3

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, TagesboteLV, 1905, Nr. 502, Abendblatt, 27. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung), Brünner Morgenpost, Beilage zur Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 246, 27. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 505, Morgenblatt, 29. 10., p. 3

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 506, Abendblatt, 30. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 248, 30. 10., p. 3

Anonymous author, Theater- und Kunstnachrichten, Tagesbote LV, 1905, Nr. 508, Abendblatt, 31. 10., p. 4

Anonymous author, (Kunstausstellung), Brünner Zeitung, 1905, Nr. 249, 31. 10., p. 5