(St. Martin/Lofer 1887–1930 Vienna)
“Blaues Bildnis in blauem Fauteuil”, signed, dated A. Faistauer 1919, inscription on the reverse on the stretcher: Blaues Bildnis in blauem Fauteuil A Faistauer Wien Biberstr. 2, oil on canvas, 89 x 67 cm, framed

Illustrated and registered:
Franz Fuhrmann, Anton Faistauer, Residenz Verlag 1972, cat. rais. no. 187, registered on p. 142 - there with title “Junge Frau en face in Lehnstuhl”

Exhibited:
CIV. Ausstellung der Vereinigung Bildender Künstler, Wiener Secession, 23 February – 1 April 1929, no. 47 - there with title “Dame im blauen Fauteuil”
special exhibition, Anton Faistauer, Carl Moll, Herta Strzygawski, Vienna, Mährischer Kunstverein, Brno, 5 May – 26 May 1929, no. 58 – there with title “Blaues Bildnis in blauem Fauteuil”

Provenance:
Galerie Hasenöhrl, Getreidegasse, Salzburg, c. 1974
Private Collection, Salzburg

Anton Faistauer is one of the most important representatives of Austrian Expressionism, in which he strove less for the exaggeration of colour and more for its deepening in form and space. He understood his painting as an intermediate stage where random appearances meet the objective realm of ideas.
Particularly in his portraits of women, the fine balance between autonomous, powerful application of paint and subtle as well as unambiguous boundaries of form is evident. Clear, "lawful" structures versus haunting tonal colour painting lead to that special melancholy of the indeterminate that gives Faistauer's female portraits their own poetry of rapt sensuality.