Illustration: Franziska Hofmanninger. Austrian lace collar, c1905.
Two of the most important names associated with the revival in the fortunes of Austrian lace at the very beginning of the twentieth century, are that of Mathilde Hrdlicka and Franziska Hofmanninger. Both were well placed within the Central Lace School in Vienna, the very hub of the move to reinvigorate the lace craft system across the whole of the then Austrian half of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Through a combination of the management of Hrdlikca's husband who became head of the Central School, along with his own, his wife's and Hofmanninger's design skills, a move was made to redirect the substantial traditions of the craft of Austrian lace, into that of a contemporary and hopefully more relevant direction.
Illustration: Franziska Hofmanninger. Austrian lace border, c1905.
It is the two women Hrdlicka and Hofmanninger who were to produce much of the contemporary design work that was to be used by the Central School and through them disseminated via branches of the School, across the entire empire. That the design initiative corresponded to the European wide Art Nouveau movement, allows us to explore how Hrdlicka and Hofmanninger were able to tailor the design work to fit the movement.
The four design pieces shown here were all produced by Hofmanninger in about 1905. The designer consciously broke with the traditions of lace pattern work, by not relying so heavily on the vocabulary of past styles. Much of the work produced by the Central Schools during this period was floral based, which corresponds to much of the reasoning behind the Art Nouveau movement. However, it must be said that although there may well be certain similarities with the contemporary movement, Hofmanninger's work departs from any form of slavish copying. There are no obvious monikers of the usual Art Nouveau style and although it has to be said that there was never really one official Art Nouveau decorative style but rather a number of regional and individual interpretations, the generalised swirling or sinuous tendrils are missing, although nature is still at the central core of the design work. Hofmanninger's own interpretation is somewhat different from that usually accepted as being typical of Art Nouveau styling and therefore should be noted with interest.
Illustration: Franziska Hoffmanninger. Austrian lace border, c1905.
The design work is littered with small delicate flowers cleverly interconnected by the structure of the lace work itself. The decoration seems much more reminiscent to that of some of the fine art work produced by Gustav Klimt and the contemporary feel of the decorative art movement in Vienna, than it does of that of the general Art Nouveau movement of France or Belgium. This Viennese style was a unique rendering of contemporary European decorative arts and was to express itself in most design, decorative and craft disciplines including that of textile craft.
These design pieces were meant as working examples to be reproduced across the entire network of the Central Schools of Austria. Hofmanninger was involved closely with the lace makers themselves. This meant that her design work would have to have been practically based and would need to take into consideration the varying skills base of the craft industry. There were a number of designers linked with the Central Schools but Hofmanninger's work stands out, along with that of Hrdlicka, as some of the best examples of lace work produced not only in the few years at the beginning of the twentieth century, but that of the lace craft in general.
Illustration: Franziska Hofmanninger. Austrian lace fan, c1905.
Through the industrious work of the Hrdlicka's and Hofmanninger, Austrian lace was to have a brief but truly creative era whereby its re-direction, re-organization and re-styling was applauded across Europe as a great example of the re-launching of an old and tradition-bound craft industry. Although it was not an entirely successful re-launch of the lace industry in Austria, this has more to do with the nature of the lace market itself and its complex relationship and dependency on the fashion industry. Many of the traditional lace making areas of Europe had struggled at one point or another to re-launch or re-direct localised and regional lace craft industries for centuries, all had varying degrees of success. However, the Austrian experiment was an extremely productive period and for nearly two decades at the beginning of the twentieth century, Austrian lace could be said to have been one of the crafts that saw itself at the forefront of the contemporary decorative and design world. That it was widely acknowledged and recognised as being so both in Europe and North America, is testament to its success.
Further reading links:
Vienna, 1890-1920
Koloman Moser (Secession) Art Poster Print - 24x36
Art & Society: The New Art Movement in Vienna, 1897-1914
Embracement Styles Art Poster Print by Gustav Klimt, 24x34
Klimt (World of Art)
Kiss (detail) Art Styles Giclee Poster Print by Gustav Klimt, 20x56
Vienna 1900: Art, Architecture, Design
Tree of Life Styles Art Poster Print by Gustav Klimt, 18x34
Mother and Child (detail from The Three Ages of Woman), c.1905 Art Styles Giclee Poster Print by Gustav Klimt, 56x38
Sunflowers by Gustav Klimt. Size 27.50 X 27.50 Art Poster Print on Canvas
The Music Fine Art Poster Print by Gustav Klimt, 39x28
Emilie Floege by Gustav Klimt. Size 18.00 X 54.00 Art Poster Print
