Lori Matschnig, An Old Man, Copy after Balthasar Denner, Oil on Wood, Museum Quality

Eleonore (Lori) Matschnig

Eisenerz 1838 - 1920 Graz

An Old Man, after Balthasar Denner

Oil on panel

Size: 40 x 31.5 cm

Frame: 59 x 51 cm

Good original condition
Authenticity is confirmed in writing.

Lori Matschnig grew up with foster parents who recognized her artistic talent early on and provided her with training in painting and drawing as a child. She initially attended the Landscape Drawing Academy in Graz from 1852 to 1860 under Joseph Ernst Tunner and Ernst Christian Moser. She later continued her studies in Vienna as a student of Hans Canon and the history painter Fritz L'Allemand.

In 1876, Matschnig contributed an oil portrait of Franz Joseph I to an exhibition of the Austrian Art Association in Vienna. In addition to painting originals, she soon turned to copying the works of other artists, earning her living this way. She regularly visited the Imperial Picture Gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna and other collections in Austria, Germany, and Italy. In 1904, she became a supporting member of the Styrian Association of Visual Artists.

Lori Matschnig painted portraits, landscapes, and still lifes. Her oeuvre also includes independent works, but she achieved particular importance as a copyist of the works of Old Masters. She copied works by Peter Paul Rubens, Frans Hals, Anthony van Dyck, Gabriel Metsu, Titian, Palma Vecchio, Antonio da Correggio, Guido Reni, Francesco Furini, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, and Diego Velázquez, among others. She also used paintings by more recent artists such as Hans Makart, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller, Peter Fendi, Friedrich August von Kaulbach, and Leopold Horovitz as models. She created various replicas of some works; for example, she copied Balthasar Denner's heads (portraits) at least nine times. Matschnig sometimes chose a different size for her copies from the original or converted them into a different technique.