Mother and son: Agathe von Schwabenau and Egon Hofmann

Doposcheg-Schwabenau, Agathe von

(Hungary  23-09-1857 –  18-04-1950 Garmisch-Partenkirchen)

Austrian painter, bookplate (exlibris) artist and printmaker.

She was the daughter of Ferdinand Ritter von Schwabenau (1800-1881) and Antonie von Szelerem (1821-1882) and married twice: 1) Richard Hofmann (1857-1926) industrialist and Portland cement manufacturer, bankpresident and president of Linz chamber of commerce. Although they had three children (Egon, Karl and Agathe) she is not represented in the obituary of Richard Hofmann which leads to my assumption the first marriage ended in divorce. 

 2) botanist Dr. Josef Doposcheg-Uhlar (1870-1956) after which she uses the interlaced monogram ASD instead of AS. I have no idea when she changed it, somewhere between 1910 and 1925 is a (my) rough estimate. 

She was a student and friend of influential Adolf Hölzel (1853-1935) in Stuttgart and in Dachau. Hölzel also taught printmaker Martha Cunz (1876-1961). She also studied with landscape painter Melchior Fritsch (1826-1889) in Vienna. 

She visited Haarlem in the Netherlands in the summer of 1890 according to a sketchbook I found in the stock of a Dutch antiques dealer. She saw the city of Haarlem with towering St. Bavo church from the dunes as did Salomon van Ruijsdael (1600/03 - 1670) following in his footsteps two and a half centuries later.

This one woodblock print by her is known to me (with the ADS monogram), with the sketch. Until 1918 she created some 40 bookplates (ex-libris) for family, artists and Austrian intelligentia.

Bookplates by her hand also remember: her sister Valerie Kräutner von Thatenberg-Schwabenau (1843-1930), her son Adolf Hofmann (d. 1926 ?) at the piano, her daughter Agatha von Hardt-Stremayer-Hofmann (d.1919), her second husband Dr. Josef Doposcheg and herself ("zu eigen" probably showing herself sketching in the mountains).

An iconic ex-libris (bookplate) of two children, presumably showing Wolfgang and Rainer Hardt-Stremayer the children of her daughter Agathe von Hardt-Stremayer-Hofmann (d.1919) was made by Vienna printmaker Marianne Saxl-Deutsch (1885-1942). 

(Wolfgang was to be mayor of the village of Moosburg-an- der- Isar 1938-1941, not far from Munich). 

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Hofmann, Dr. Egon

(Kleinmünchen-Linz 13-09-1884 – 30-11-1972 Linz)

Austrian expressionist painter, graphic artist, poet, mountaineer and industrialist.

Son of Agatha Schwabenau (1857-1950) and prosperous Linz industrialist (Portland cement factory) Richard Hofmann (1857-1926). Also known als Egon Hofmann-Linz. The Jewish Hofmann family originated from Bohemia and had moved to Linz in the early 19^th century were many members were active in trade and industry. 

Grandfather Adolf Hofmann (1819-1897) was an art collector and art Maecenas. Egon studied law in Munich, Vienna and Insbruck earning a doctorate. During his studies he stayed in Paris visiting the Louvre and the “Academié de la Grande Chaumière”. Then studied in Stuttgart, like his mother with Adolf Hölzel and in Dresden “Kunstakademie” interrupted by WW1.

In 1918 he founded “Der Ring von Hofmann” artists circle meeting Matthias May (1884-1923) and Margarete Pausinger (1880-1856). Stayed in Dresden 1919-1921. Founder and president of the artists association “MAERZ” which was forbidden in 1939 but re-established in 1952 that ran a gallery in Linz until 2003. Travels in Europe (Greece, according to this Delphi oracle drawing)

climbing as a mountaineer many Alpine mountains for the first time. After the death of his father and early death of his brother Karl he also took charge of the family business. His works are collected in Dresden “Koniglichen Kupferstichkabinett”, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Oberösterichischen Landesmuseum, the Neuen Gallerie in Linz and in the Galerie Lehner in Vienna. 

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All pictures borrowed freely from the Internet for friendly, educational and non commercial use only.