Hans Makart Biography

Makart was born 28 May 1840, Salzburg - DIED 3 Oct 1884, Wien
GRAVE LOCATION Wien: Zentralfriedhof (Gruppe 14 A, nummer 32)

Son of a chamberlain at Mirabell castle. After a short study at the Academy in Vienna Makart was educated by Karl Theodor von Piloty in Munich (1860-1865) and travelled to London, Paris and Rome to study.

Makart returned to Vienna after the prince Von Hohenlohe provided him with an old foundy at the Gusshausstrasse 25 to use as a studio. Makart gradually turned it into an impressive place full of sculptures, flowers, musical instruments, requisites and jewellery that he used to create classical settings for his portrait paintings, mainly of women. Eventually Makart's studio looked like a salon and became a social meeting point in Vienna. Cosima Wagner described it as a “wonder of decoritive beauty, a sublime lumber-room”.

Makart became famous for his richly coloured history paintings and enjoyed his finest hour in 1879 with his painting of the procession in honour of the silver anniversary of the marriage of emperor Francis Joseph and his wife Elisabeth (better known as Sisi). In the same year Makart became a Professor at the Academy.

Makart also designed furniture and interiors. In 1882 emperor Francis Joseph orderded to build the Villa Hermes at Lainz (near Vienna) for his empress and the bedroom decoration should be inspired on Shakespeare’s Midsummernight’s Dream. Makart designed a fascinating dreamworld that still exists at the Villa Hermes as a large painting (1882). Unfortunately Makart's design was never executed after his early death in 1884. Makart collection of antics and art consisted of 1083 paintings and was put up for auction by art-dealer H.O. Miethke.