Franz Xavier Kosler, (Austrian, 1864-1905)

Portrait of a man

Portrait of a man
signed 'F. Kosler' (lower right)
oil on panel
32 x 18.5cm (12 5/8 x 7 5/16in).

Franz Kosler is probably best known for his sensitive portraits which capture the real character of the sitter. He was born in Vienna in 1864, and became one of the most celebrated Orientalist painters of his generation. Kosler began his artistic studies at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste (The Academy of Fine Arts) in Vienna, studying under the renowned Austrian Orientalist artist Leopold Carl Müller. Highly influenced by Müller's work, Kosler followed in his tutor's footsteps, travelling abroad to paint the Near East first-hand, depicting richly coloured genre scenes and tender close-up portraits of young sitters, dressed in traditional clothing. Setting off in 1886, Kosler travelled extensively, visiting Dalmatia, Montenegro, Albania and Egypt.

Kosler opened a one-man exhibition in Cairo in 1894. The show was a great success and secured him many wealthy Egyptian clients, including Prince Said Halim Pasha, the grandson of Mehemet Ali Pasha (the future Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire) who commissioned a series of portraits from the artist. Kosler's portrait commissions were not limited to Egyptian society; whilst in Egypt, Kosler made acquaintances with a number of influential European art collectors, and was commissioned to paint Archduke Ferdinand Karl in Vienna, as well as other wealthy individuals such as Countess Palfy-Schilippenback, who sat for the artist in 1896.

Kosler exhibited at the Glass Palace in Munich in 1899 and at the Royal Academy in London, where he showed The Blind Beggar and Vegetable Sellers, Cairo in 1903. He also found fame in his home country, regularly exhibiting in the Viennese salons from 1895, becoming a member of the Society of Artist Painters a few years later, in 1901.