Janesch Albert (1889-1973) - Andalusische Landschaft

Albert Janesch (born 12 June 1889 in Vienna; died 10 May 1973 in the same place) was an Austrian portrait and genre painter.

Life
Janesch studied from 1904 to 1912 at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, his teachers were Siegmund L’Allemand and Franz Rumpler.

During World War I, Janesch was taken on 20 October 1915 as a war painter into the art group of the k.u.k. War Press Headquarters. He initially worked in Belgrade, then Trieste and subsequently, until autumn 1916, at various sections of the Isonzo Front. From December 1917 to June 1918 he was on the Turkish Front. In 1916 he received the 1st prize of the War Memorial Competition. He was listed in the personnel records of the War Press Headquarters until November 1918.

During World War II Janesch was again employed as a war painter, working on the south and west coasts of France, in Russia and Greece. In a letter to the chief editor of the NSDAP magazine Der Hoheitsträger he explained in 1941 his painting concept The Illegal Fighter and reported in detail what led him in 1932 to submit an application to join the NSDAP ("the cleansing of Vienna’s art life from Jewish and Masonic spirit"). He effectively joined the party on 18 February 1933 (membership number 1,600,275). Janesch was among others represented at the Great German Art Exhibition in Munich in 1937, 1938, 1940 and 1941. There he mainly displayed war scenes of the Wehrmacht and, in 1941, portraits of the Nazi military leaders Karl Eibl and Friedrich Siebert. Two of the paintings were purchased by Hitler.

After the war Janesch was commissioned to fresco the “Iron Hall” of the newly erected Artillery Hall (Arsenal Object 2) of the Army History Museum. Thus in 1952/53 he executed the fresco “The Artillery of Emperor Maximilian I.”, for which a painting by Jörg Kölderer served as a model. The frescoes were completed on 25 March 1954.

Dimensions:
Without frame: Width: 80 cm x Height: 90 cm, with frame: Width: 95 cm x Height 105 cm