Pencil drawings by Leopold Forstner
The 29 pencil drawings were created between April 1917 and May 1918. During this time, Leopold Forstner was travelling on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian army administration as a collection officer in the Balkans occupied by Austria-Hungary.
Leopold Forstner was a graphic artist, painter and craftsman who specialised in mosaic and glass production. Forstner was conscripted in August 1915 but was able to delay his military service for operational reasons. From September 1916, he travelled through the Austro-Hungarian-occupied Balkan territories as a collection officer on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian army administration, initially to collect improvised medical instruments and means of transport from the occupying troops for the Military Museum (Heeresmuseum). He soon was tasked with collecting items, more specifically everyday objects, handicraft products and domestic items, for the Museum für österreichische Volkskunde (Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art). Arthur Haberlandt, who had taken part as an ethnographer in the Art-Historical-Archaeological-Ethnographic-Linguistic Balkan Expedition on behalf of the Austro-Hungarian Ministry of Education from May to August 1916, considered this trip – authorised by the highest military authority – as a highly welcome opportunity to expand the museum's holdings from the Balkans, especially since the participants in the Balkan expedition had not been allowed to acquire pieces of art. He explained this in an undated letter to the State Commission for Returns (Staatskommission für Rücklieferungen): "Um die Lücken in der Museumssammlung /Primitivobjekte/ aufzufüllen wurde im Jahre 1917 mit Herrn Akad.Maler Forstner des Kriegspressequartiers verhandelt, der hiezu von der obersten Militärbehörde Genehmigung und Unterstützung erhielt in der Art, dass im [sic] das Ausfassen besonderer Artikel namentlich Tücher zu Tauschzwecken bewilligt wurde.“1
Forstner described the purpose of his collection trip in his writings about his studies in Albania and Macedonia as follows: "[…] nicht nur die Lebensverhältnisse und -bedürfnisse der Balkanbevölkerung unserer Öffentlichkeit vorzuführen, sondern ihr auch zu zeigen, wieviel eigener handwerklich wertvoller und zugleich künstlerisch bemerkenswerter Besitz dort schon vorliegt, auf dem es in Zukunft für die westeuropäische Zivilisation zu fußen und aufzubauen gilt. Die Grundlage und Voraussetzung jedweder gedeihlichen kulturellen Arbeit und Verwaltung ist die genaue Kenntnis der betreffenden Bevölkerung, ihrer angestammten Eigenart in leiblicher und geistiger Hinsicht, ihrer Arbeit und Kunstfertigkeiten, ihres Handels und Wandels, kurzum ihrer ethnographischen Besonderheiten.“2 (Forstner 1918: 349-350) For more information on the context of scientific and museum practices during the First World War as well as individual and institutional attempts to position and establish Viennese folk life and art during Austro-Hungarian domestic colonialism, see in particular Marchetti (2013).
Forstner then travelled to Albania, Serbia, Montenegro and the mainly Albanian-inhabited part of Macedonia. In addition to his collecting activities, he also produced a number of pencil drawings of topographical objects, urban and agricultural buildings, looms and ‘folk types’. It was not only the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art that benefited from his undertakings; the Technical Museum for Industry and Trade (Technisches Museum für Industrie und Gewerbe) also expressed interest in technical and technological collectibles in a letter to the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art dated 31 July 1917. Forstner also delivered items to the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry (Österreichisches Museum für Kunst und Industrie), as he explains in his writings: "In Österreich und speziell in Wien ist die Aufgabe, an der Erschließung der Balkangebiete mitzuarbeiten, eine allgemeine Aufgabe aller in Betracht kommenden Anstalten, daher ersuchte mich die Direktion des Österreichischen Museums, auch für dieses Institut einiges typisch Kunstgewerbliches der Balkanländer zu erwerben.“3 (Forstner 1918: 350) This is why the Austrian Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) owns 58 drawings by Leopold Forstner, among others.
Based on the dates of the drawings and the correspondence found in the collection documentation held by the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art, the following locations of Forstner's travels could be provisionally reconstructed:
April 1917: Rijeka/Rijeka Crnojevića (25 April), Skutari/Shkodra (30 April)
May 1917: Shkodra (1 and 2 May), Pekinje/Peqin (13 and 14 May), Elbasan (16 and 19 May)
June 1917: Shkodra (8 June)
September 1917: Shkodra (September), Mitrovica/Kosovska Mitrovica or Sremska Mitrovica [?](September), Belgrade (4 and 24 September), Valjevo (18 September)
End of September 1917: Stockerau (27 September), Vienna (29 September)
October 1917: Montenegro (October), Tirana (October), Shkodra (9 and 25 October), Rijeka Crnojevića (16 and 29 October)
November 1917: Alessio/Lezha (November), Bojana/Buna (1 November), Tirana (8 November), Shkodra (19 and 23 November), presumably Durazzo/Durrës
February 1918: Shkodra (20 February)
March 1918: Shkodra (7 and 16 March)
April 1918: Prizren (April), Üsküb/Skopje (23 and 25 April)
May 1918: Prilep (9 May), Ochrida/Ohrid (18 May)
The 29 pencil drawings, some of which have been coloured in, are stored under inventory numbers AÖMV/4243-4254 and AÖMV/8085-8101 in the Austrian Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art (Volkskundemuseum Wien). They were created between the end of April 1917 and May 1918 and stem from Mitrovica, Valjevo, Scutari, Alessio, Tirana, Pekinje, Elbasan, Üsküb and Ochrida. Forstner stated that he received profound inspiration as an artist in those countries, and the many drawings "sollen vor allem dartun, daß trotz aller Ungebundenheit in der Lebensführung, in der Armseligkeit der Bevölkerung, in jedem Einzelnen ein kräftiges Können steckt. Für die Zukunft muß letzteres gefördert werden, um diese Bevölkerung einer neuen und höheren Entwicklung zuzuführen.“4 (Forstner 1918: 350)
Forstner most likely first delivered the drawings from Valjevo to the museum at the end of September 1917, together with object collections from Serbia, as can be seen from a letter sent from Stockerau dated 27 September 1917. In another letter posted in Rijeka, dated 29 October 1917, Forstner wrote to the Emperor Charles Museum (Kaiser Karl-Museum): "Die in Aussicht gestellten Zeichnungen konnte ich deswegen nicht schicken, da sie mit sehr weichen [sic] Bleistift gezeichnet sind u. in Ermangelung von Fixatio war es nicht möglich sie zu verpacken ohne daß sie Schaden genommen hätten. Bei meinem nächsten Wiener Aufenthalt, werde ich alles nachholen. Ich darf darauf aufmerksam machen, daß auch die in Ihren Händen befindlichen Zeichnungen nicht fixiert sind u. sich leicht verwischen.“5 The second delivery must have taken place at the end of 1917, because the Journal for Austrian Folk Life and Folk Art (Zeitschrift für österreichische Volkskunde) already mentioned the "zahlreichen (66) meisterhaften zeichnerischen und aquarellistischen Aufnahmen des Herrn Fähnrichs Leopold Forstner”6 in their announcement of an exhibition on the folk life and folk art of the occupied Balkan regions (“Zur Volkskunde der besetzten Balkangebiete”) in December 1917 (n.a. 1917: 132). This number also includes the drawings that then entered the holdings of the Museum of Art and Industry. In its report for the first quarter of 1918, the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art then confirms the acquisition of "26 Zeichnungen ethnographischen und technologischen Inhalts"7 (n.a. 1918b: 80).
When selecting the motifs, Forstner sometimes drew inspiration from the places visited by Arthur Haberlandt during his Balkan expedition and the photographs taken there. He also based his motifs on the craft and agricultural activities or traditional costumes and building details documented in Haberlandt's publication about cultural studies on folk life and folk art in Montenegro, Albania and Serbia ("Kulturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zur Volkskunde von Montenegro, Albanien und Serbien"). Item AÖMV/8085, for instance, illustrates the Bojana river fishery outlined on page 42 of the publication. Furthermore, the drawings of an Albanian oil mill (AÖMV/8086) and oil press (AÖMV/8087) correspond with Haberlandt's photographs of an olive crusher and an oil press in Scutari as depicted on pages 50 and 51. Forstner also mentioned the oil mill and oil press in a letter sent from Scutari, dated 9 October 1917: "Gezeichnet habe ich schon viel und darunter bestimmt Sachen, die das Museum interessieren werden. z.B. [sic] Ölmühle u. Ölpresse, alles komplett. eine [sic] ganz eigentümliche Mühle. Die Stoffstampfe bei Rijeka wollte ich auch gerne haben, ich kam hin, sie ist aber leider abmontiert und damit bedauerlicherweise verloren gegangen. Außerdem habe ich ziemlich viel Architektur gezeichnet.”8 The drawing stored under AÖMV/4246 shows a Kutzowalach loom as illustrated on page 135.
Forstner's drawings were first presented in January 1918 during the exhibition about folk life and folk art of the occupied Balkan territories, which took place in the large ballroom of the University of Vienna and was organised by the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art with support from the Orient Department at the Austro-Hungarian War Ministry. Critics such as Hartwig Fischel praised Forstner's pictures: "Seine klaren und reizvollen, sachlich und künstlerisch so befriedigenden Darstellungen der volkstümlichen Bauweise, der wichtigen Einzelheiten volkskundlich interessanter Arbeitsprozesse, der Kostüme und Typen lassen den geübten Blick und die sichere Hand eines Künstlers erkennen, der seiner Ziele sicher ist und sein Material beherrscht.“9 (Fischel 1918: 69) However, an art portfolio announced in the Journal for Austrian Folk Life and Folk Art, which was intended to make Forstner's drawings accessible to a wider public, was never realised. Drawings from Albania and Macedonia were again shown at the Vienna Secession spring exhibition in 1920. However, due to the brief catalogue entry, it was not possible to fully establish whether works from the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art were also part of the show (Vereinigung Bildender Künstler 1920: catalogue no. 143). Hartwig Fischel again praised the "klaren reizvollen Zeichnungen, mit denen Forstner die mazedonische und albanische Welt zu schildern unternahm. Sie geben dem Freund des Orients ein ungemein klares und lebendiges Bild vom malerischen Reiz der östlichen Bauwelt.“10 (Fischel 1920: 67-68) The drawings were subsequently displayed in the public collection of the Museum of Folk Life and Folk Art, which reopened on 26 June 1920 in Laudongasse street. Room IX on the ground floor showed the South Slavic collections under the title "Europäische Vergleichssammlung" (European Comparative Collection): "[…] die teilweise farbigen Handzeichnungen in den Fensternischen von der Künstlerhand Leopold Forstners stellen Volkstypen und Volkstrachten sowie die typischen Haus- und Wohnungsformen, endlich Arbeitsgeräte (Webstühle) und dergleichen aus Albanien, Montenegro und Serbien dar.“11 (Haberlandt 1921: 37) Further drawings depicting traditional costumes from Albania were on display in room XI Albania. This long-term display took place under inappropriate conservation conditions (reference to the drawings also appeared in the new museum guide published in 1930), which is why some of the drawings have turned yellow or brown.
1 In order to fill the gaps in the museum collection, negotiations were held in 1917 with academic painter Mr Forstner from the War Press Bureau, who received authorisation and support from the highest military authority who approved the use of special items, namely cloths, for exchange purposes. (translation)
Elisabeth Egger
December 2015
Unpublished sources in the Volkskundemuseum Wien, collection documentation:
References:
Short biography of Leopold Forstner:
2 November 1878 – Born in Leonfelden, Upper Austria
1885–1898 – Primary school in Leonfelden, secondary school in Linz, state craft school (Staatshandwerksschule) in Linz, glass painting and mosaic apprenticeship at Tiroler Glasmalerei- und Mosaikanstalt in Innsbruck
1899–1902 – Studies at the Vienna School of Arts and Crafts (k. k. Kunstgewerbeschule), part of the Austrian Museum of Art and Industry in Vienna, figurative painting with Karl Karger and painting with Koloman Moser
1902–1903 – Studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich with Ludwig Herterich
From 1902 – Worked as a drawer, graphic artist and illustrator
1908 – Founded the mosaic workshop Wiener Mosaikwerkstätte
18 January 1911 – Married Stephanie Stöger in Stockerau, Lower Austria
1915 – Conscripted to military service, 1916-1918 collection officer (ensign rank)
1919 – Moved to Stockerau
1920 – Founded the glass workshop Werkstätte zur Erzeugung und Verarbeitung von Edelglas G.m.b.H. in Stockerau
1921 – Company transformation into Österreichische Edelglaswerke AG
1925 – Withdrawal from the company
From 1927 – Expert advisor to the trade promotion office (Gewerbeförderungsamt) for the Lower Austrian provincial government
1929–1936 – Teacher of freehand drawing and manual dexterity at the Bundesgymnasium Hollabrunn school, Lower Austria
5 November 1936 – Died in Stockerau